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Phillip Cornelius Sullivan, II, then 18 years old, driving a 2009 Lexus Sedan, struck a horse-drawn buggy, ejecting the driver, 18-year-old Andrew J. Stoltzfus of Honey Brook, before fleeing the scene, according to the police.
The whole incident happened along the 5700 block of Division Highway around 2:45 a.m. on July 5, 2021, as Daily Vice reported at the time.
Stoltzfus "passed away at Lancaster General Hospital on Wednesday, July 7, 2021," as stated in his obituary. He was survived by his father, stepmother, and eight siblings. His body was buried on July 10.
The now 20-year-old Sullivan, entered a guilty plea to 13 charges including homicide by vehicle while DUI, a second-degree felony on Friday, Sept. 29, according to a release by the Lancaster County District Attorney's office on Oct. 2. He was swiftly sentenced to serve three to eight years in prison by Lancaster County Judge Jeffrey Wright.
The DA has revealed that Sullivan admitted to having a BAC of .103 and THC- the major psychoactive component in marijuana- in his system after he drove from a Fourth of July party at his girlfriend's house.
The investigators' crash reconstruction showed Sullivan’s Lexus was going approximately 68 miles per hour in a 45 MPH zone. The DA also said that the collision killed the horse, which Daily Voice originally reported after speaking to police following the crash.
What may surprise some, but not those familiar with the local Amish community, Assistant District Attorney Kyle Linardo who prosecuted the case "mentioned the Amish community’s humbling ability to forgive in response to tragedies, something he had experienced in many meetings with the victim’s family and community members throughout the prosecution of this case."
Even though he noted their forgiveness, Linardo asked the Judge to hand down a sentence of six to 20 years in prison, the maximum sentence was 27.5 years.
“[The Amish community] refrains that it is not their place to judge and that it is up to any person, and in this case the defendant, to take that second chance and make something of it,” Linardo said to Judge Wright on behalf of the victim’s family.
Despite that, Judge Wright ordered Sullivan to write a letter of apology to the Stoltzfus family. “If you don’t [turn your life around], you’ll be spending a lot of time in an orange jumpsuit,” Wright continued. “You understand me?”
The defendant reportedly responded, “Yes, sir.”
At the time of the deadly buggy crash, Sullivan was out on bail for his theft and reckless endangerment charges in connection with the killing of Whispering Wind Bear Spirit, "a 41-year-old Indigenous non-binary person shot to death in York" on May 3, 2021, court records show and Human Rights Watch noted.
While this hit-and-run case went on, Sullivan was sentenced for the theft and endangerment and went on to start his consecutive two and three-year probation sentences, according to his last docket on the drug-related killing.
Meanwhile, the brothers involved in the botched marijuana robbery that led to Whispering Wind Bear Spirit's death were both located by US Marshals and charged, as Daily Voice reported at the time.
Ryan Strada, now 23, was convicted of gun, drug, conspiracy to commit robbery, and firearm offenses and sentenced to consecutive confinement for a minimum of six to 24 months, court records show.
Nicholas Strada, now 20, was convicted of conspiracy to commit robbery and murder in the third degree. He was sentenced to serve 10 to 25 years in prison, according to his court records.
While the younger Strada brother was serving his sentence at the State Correctional Institution in Camp Hill he was allegedly caught with drugs on March 23, 2023, court records show. His pretrial conference is set for 8:30 a.m. on Nov. 13, according to his latest court docket.
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