Prison time for driver who fled scene

WEST CHESTER » The man who collided with a Coatesville woman’s car as he fled from police because he was driving on a suspended license, killing her, has been sentenced to state prison for the fatal crash.

On Friday, Common Pleas Judge Patrick Carmody accepted the guilty plea of Tyree Eric Mansell to charges of accidents involving death and homicide by by vehicle. As part of a plea agreement Mansell made with the prosecution, he was sentenced to five to 10 years in prison, and ordered to pay more than $15,000 in restitution to the victim’s family.

Killed in the March 2019 crash was Monica Fiorentino McGibboney, a 45-yearold mother of one who was a bus driver for the Rover bus system. In her obituary, McGibboney was described as “a caring, loving person who loved life and people.

“She served the community through her cooking and provided meals on Thanksgiving,” read the obituary. “Some of her most popular dishes were sweet potato fluff, fried shrimp, collard greens and potato salad.” Members of McGibboney’s family were in Carmody’s courtroom when Mansell entered his plea.

According to a criminal complaint filed by Coatesville Corporal Shawn

Dowds in the crash, Officer Jared Davis was driving on East Chestnut Street about 5:10 a.m. on march 20, 2019 when she saw a black Kia sedan pass his patrol car going in the opposite direction at a high rate of speed. He put his car in reverse and started to chase the Kia.

Davis was able to view the Kia run through a stop sign at North 8th Avenue and East Chestnut Street, and continue on at high speeds towards East Lincoln Highway. When the Kia got to the intersection with East Lincoln, it drove through a steady red light and collided with the driver’s side of a car traveling east on East Lincoln Highway.

After the crash, the Kia driver got out of the car and fled the scene on foot. The driver, later identified as Mansell, was found a short

while later hiding behind an oil tank at the rear of a property in the 700 block of East Lincoln Highway, just a short distance from the scene of the crash.

In an interview later with Coatesville detectives, Mansell, 24, of Coatesville, admitted driving the Kia, which he said belonged to his girlfriend. He said he spotted Davis’s patrol car when he passed it, and saw the reverse tail lights come on. He said he “panicked,” knowing that his license was suspended and that he would be cited for driving without a valid license. “He was trying to get away real quick and park somewhere,” according to the arrest affidavit.

Mansell said he saw the car at 8th and East Lincoln at the traffic signal, and tried to swerve around it to avoid striking it, but collided

with it regardless.

McGibboney was driving a Chevrolet Monte Carlo at the time and was trapped inside her vehicle after the crash, unconscious. She was taken out of the car by personnel from the Coatesville Fire Company and local EMTs, and taken to Brandywine Hospital in Caln, where she succumbed to her injuries.

Mansell was on parole at the time of the crash for a 2017 burglary conviction, for which he served 11½ to 23 months in Chester County Prison.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant District Attorney John McCaul. Mansell was represented by Assistant Public Defender Erin Bruno.