Posted on 01/29/2005 12:30:23 PM PST by ambrose
Posted on Fri, Jan. 28, 2005
Man who ran over girlfriend gets 180-day sentence
By Wendy Ruderman
INQUIRER STAFF WRITER
A man who ran over and killed his girlfriend on a Gloucester County highway was sentenced to 180 days in jail today.
A Superior Court jury in December acquitted Martin Phelps, 44, of murder in the death of Julie Johnson but convicted him of the lesser charge of leaving the scene of a fatal accident.
Judge John Tomasello said Phelps, of Gloucester Township, could opt to serve the 180 days, minus 83 days for time served, on weekends or on work release. Tomasello also suspended Phelp's driver's license for six months.
Before the sentence was imposed, Johnson's Jessica Gearhart described her mother's injuries in detail.
Gearhart told the judge she became "dizzy with devastation" upon seeing her mother's body "splattered all over the road" - her face unrecognizable.
"He treated her like he ran over a piece of trash, leaving us to beg for the slightest bit of mercy," Gearhart said.
Phelps could have been sentenced to up to 5 years in prison for leaving the scene of a fatal accident, a third-degree crime.
Afterward, Gearhart, 20, of Woodbury, said she was unsatisfied with what she viewed as a light sentence, especially because Phelps can serve the jail time "when it's convenient for him."
Phelps struck Johnson, 44, his girlfriend of about three months, as she sat on Route 45 near her West Deptford home on April 18, 2003. He had just dropped her off from a date.
Johnson's two children - Jessica and her 27-year-old brother, Charles Gearhart - had testified that they heard arguing outside their home and went to investigate. Johnson's son said he saw Phelps steer his Jeep Wrangler into his mother as she sat on the shoulder of the road.
But during the three-week trial, defense attorney John Eastlack Jr. argued that Johnson caused her own death by deliberately sitting cross-legged in the middle of the travel lane while drunk that night. Phelps didn't see her in the road, Eastlack told the jury.
"I'm very sorry that this has ever happened," Phelps said today in court, his voice barely audible. He said he drove home that night because, "I couldn't bring myself to go back there."
Judge John Tomasello said Phelps, of Gloucester Township, could opt to serve the 180 days, minus 83 days for time served, on weekends or on work release. Tomasello also suspended Phelp's driver's license for six months.
Does that guy have some strong connections, or what?
So was she on the shoulder of the road or in a travel lane? This guy kills someone and leaves the scene of an accident and gets nothing as a sentence. I'm speechless.
Of course, since she was on a date with him and drunk, it's quite possible he was drinking as well. It was probably smart for him to leave the scene. Had he hit her and tested over the limit, it would have gone much worse for him.
Must have had Ted Kennedy's advisors on how to get away with murder and dispose of an incovenient female at the same time...
It was his responability as her date to see her home safely. Yes the family should sue for negligence
The defense attorney claims she was in the "travel lane". He gets paid to defend his client not to tell the truth.
Regardless of who's telling the truth a woman was killed and the culprit gets to serve his 180 days at his leisure.
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