Potts Sentenced to Five Years Probation in Road Rage Incident that Killed Wantagh Native

Before Nassau County Judge Phillip Grella sentenced Evan Potts to five years probation Tuesday morning, the Oceanside man — who was arrested in a 2009 in Long Beach that left Wantagh native Ian Sharinn dead — called the incident a tragedy he never intended.

“All I wanted to do was get away,” Potts told Grella.  

In June, a jury acquitted Potts of the more serious second-degree manslaughter charge, which carries a maximum penalty of 5-to-15 years in prison, but convicted him of the lesser criminally negligent homicide charge, which carries a maximum term of 1-1/3 to 4 years.

In calling for the maximum sentence, Assist. District Attorney Brendan Ahern on Tuesday raised four cases in Nassau County that lead to prison sentences for criminally negligent homicide that originally involved manslaughter charges. He also pointed out Potts’ history of arrests before and after the road rage incident, including for marijuana possession, trespassing and possession of burglary tools.  

“A prison sentence like this would serve as a deterrent in road rage cases,” Ahern argued.

But Stanley Kopilow, Potts’ attorney, argued that each of the four cases weren’t comparable to his client’s case, and noted that Potts was never convicted for his arrests.  

Kopilow, who plans to appeal the conviction of this client, called the incident in Long Beach a “tragedy without a crime,” and called Sharin “nothing less than an oversized bully” who was an “accomplice” in his own death.

“Never before has a dead man been so involved in his death,” Kopilow said.

Grella denied Kopilow’s motion that Potts was not guilty of criminally negligent homicide.  

“This was sufficient evidence for criminally negligent homicide,” Grella said.

According to District Attorney Kathleen Rice, on May 15, 2009, Potts, now 24, was driving a black 2008 Nissan Altima when he cut Sharrin off while both were driving east on West Beech Street. Later, at the Park Avenue-National Boulevard intersection, Sharinn, 34, exited his yellow 1978 Porsche and hit and kicked Potts’ vehicle. Potts then turned right on National before making a U-turn at Walnut Street, heading north on National back towards Park. As Potts’ vehicle was facing north, Sharrin pulled his car directly in front of it, exited and stood in front of the front left corner of Potts’ car, yelling at Potts with his arms outstretched, the DA said.

Several witnesses testified that Potts then turned his front wheels toward Sharinn and accelerated, driving straight over him with his front left wheel, and then rear left wheel. Sharrin suffered a broken leg, broken ribs and massive internal injuries. The rear left wheel crushed his skull, said Rice, adding that an autopsy revealed he had tire tracks on his torso, chest and face.

In their impact statements to Grella, members of Sharinn’s family asked that Potts get the maximum sentence. Sharinn was a graduate of .

“A maximum sentence for Potts pales in comparison to the sentence I’ve had to serve,” said Marc Sharrin, who spoke about his suffering since his brother's death. 

Mandy Dashrage recalled awaiting her fiancés’ phone call as they planned to close on their first home that day. “I went from getting ready to make a new home to making funeral arrangements,” said Dashrage, who later described how she contemplated suicide.  

Lois Sharrin called what Potts did to her son “a senseless act of depraved indifference.”

“Please don’t send a message that it’s okay to kill,” she said.

Outside the court, Potts told reporters that he was remorseful about the incident.  

“I’ve been thinking about it every day since it happened,” Potts told reporters. “It’s horrible thing to think about and I wished it never happened.”

The Sharinn family declined to speak to press outside the court.

If Potts wins the appeal he could be retried only on criminally negligent homicide.