Man gets 21/2to 10 years in wild chase

PHILADELPHIA In another setting, Blake Bills might have been envied: 25 years old with a fiancee and 16-month-old daughter, loving and supportive parents, family and friends.

"All I want is to be a loving husband to my fiancee and father to my daughter," Bills said.

That's going to take some time - 21/2 to 10 years, the prison term imposed Wednesday by a Philadelphia judge for Bills' three-day drug-fueled crime spree. It culminated with a Camden police officer injured, two stolen squad cars, and a high-speed chase over the Benjamin Franklin Bridge that ended when he crashed in North Philadelphia.

And he still faces trial and a possible longer sentence for his actions in New Jersey.

At times near tears, Bills, of Macungie, Pa., apologized to Common Pleas Court Judge Charles Ehrlich to anyone affected "by my outrageous actions."

Ehrlich said Bills was not the "most hardened criminal" to appear before him but added that on March 5, driving at up to 60 m.p.h. through neighborhoods and sideswiping parked cars, "you endangered all of us."

Although he rejected pleas for leniency from Bills, his family, and defense attorney David S. Bahuriak, Ehrlich allowed Bills one unusual privilege before he was taken back into custody.

Bills' family came forward and handed him his daughter, Zoe - dark-haired, smiling, in a pink sleeper - for a long hug and kiss.

Bills could be gone far longer than 10 years. After he finishes his sentence, he will be transferred to Camden County to face trial for the attempted murder of a Camden police officer during his spree.

The officer was outside his vehicle on a traffic stop March 5 when Bills and girlfriend Shayna Sykes jumped into the police car. Bills hit the officer while driving away, breaking one of the officer's legs.

"He wants to accept responsibility and move on," Bahuriak added. "We're just hoping that in New Jersey, fairness and cool heads will prevail."

Bills pleaded guilty last month to an array of charges in Philadelphia.

Sykes, now 24, Zoe's mother and Bills' fiancee, also pleaded guilty and was sentenced Sept. 30 to three to eight years in prison.

According to statements Bills and Sykes gave police, the couple had been homeless for three days after their car broke down in Camden. Cold, hungry, and coming down off drug highs, they were at Federal Street and Broadway and decided to steal an idling police car because, Bills said, "I wanted to be warm and mobile."

Racing at about 60 m.p.h. and blowing through stoplights and stop signs, Bills and Sykes stayed ahead of pursuit until he sideswiped several cars and a tree, and finally hit a house at Seventh and Norris Streets in North Philadelphia.

Bills was arrested as he tried to run from the wrecked cruiser, but Sykes jumped into a Philadelphia police car on the scene and led police on another chase that ended with that cruiser on fire in the 1100 block of Hope Street.

Assistant District Attorney Guy D'Andrea sought a four- to eight-year prison sentence and discounted Bills' description of a drug habit that consumed 30 bags of heroin and 15 bags of cocaine a day.

D'Andrea cited a psychological profile from a doctor hired by the defense, who concluded that Bills, despite years of addiction, knew how to function in society and obey the law.

"Bills decided to steal that Camden County police car," D'Andrea said. "He knew he hit [that officer] and he drove away."

Bills' mother, Veronica, pleaded for leniency, as did his grandfather, aunt, sister, and cousin, and two family friends.

"I feel responsible because I didn't see it," Bills' mother told Ehrlich. "It shouldn't have happened."

"You shouldn't feel responsibility," Ehrlich replied. "These were not things that happened at 10. It occurred when he was much older."

"By all accounts he's a nice kid, a considerate kid," Bahuriak, the defense attorney, told the judge. "He's fun to be around . . . but he got involved with a serious drug addiction."