Jury: Potts Guilty of Criminally Negligent Homicide

A jury found Evan Potts guilty of criminally negligent homicide for driving over and killing Ian Sharrin in a road rage incident in Long Beach in 2009, but acquitted him of the top charge, second-degree manslaughter, at a Nassau County Court on Monday.

The verdict was announced in the morning after the jury and Judge Phillip Grella heard closing arguments last Wednesday. Potts, an Oceanside resident, will be sentenced on Aug. 16. He could serve a maximum sentence of four years in prison. 

According to authorities, for two miles, Potts, then 22, and Sharrin, 34, were driving aggressively near each other on West Park Avenue, when Potts, who was driving a 2008 Nissan Altima, turned south on National Boulevard, made a U-turn and headed back toward West Park on May 15, 2009. Sharrin, driving a 1978 Porsche, ran a red light on West Park and blocked Potts's car.

According to witnesses, Sharrin jumped out of his vehicle, pounded on the hood of the Nissan, and shouted and cursed at Potts. Potts tried to back up, but when a car blocked him he accelerated forward, knocking Sharrin to the ground and running over him, police said. Soon after, Long Beach police arrested Potts one block away.  

In his closing arguments on June 15, Stan Kopilow, Potts’ attorney, said that Sharrin “chased and stalked” Potts for two miles and was in an “uncontrollable rage.” He characterized Sharrin’s hand marks found on the driver’s side of Potts’ car as evidence he was trying to attack his client.

“It was justified conduct to save himself,” Kopilow said of Potts’ actions.  

But in his summation, Assist. District Attorney Brendan Ahern said the marks were Sharrin’s last fruitless attempt to stop Potts from running him over.  

Ahern told the jury the bottom line in the case is that Potts clearly saw Sharrin standing at the front of the car’s driver’s side, heard his “blood curdling scream” and felt him crush Sharrin as he drove over him like a “human speed bump.” 

“Was it like a man was pointing a gun at his head?,” Ahern said. “No way … Ian Sharron didn’t have a gun. He didn’t have a knife. He didn’t have his hands around his neck.”

Patch will have further details about the verdict as they are made available.