30-60-day sentence in DUI conviction connected to fatal crash

A Wilmington truck driver was sentenced Monday to 30 to 60 days in prison on his second drunken-driving conviction.

But 55-year-old Teddy Wilson escaped what could have been a far longer sentence because he was acquitted of homicide charges in the 2010 collision in West Philadelphia that killed off-duty Philadelphia Firefighter Odell J. Pommells Jr., 33, of West Oak Lane.

Common Pleas Court Judge Benjamin Lerner acknowledged that the nonjury trial that resulted in his Sept. 29 verdict acquitting Wilson of vehicular homicide and involuntary manslaughter was "very difficult."

A blood test showed that Wilson's blood-alcohol content was 0.11 percent - slightly above the 0.08 percent legal threshold for driving while intoxicated.

But Lerner noted that no police officers or civilian witnesses reported any signs of erratic driving by Wilson or obvious physical symptoms of intoxication. Moreover, Lerner said, the witness accounts of the crash were so divergent that it was not possible for him to find that Wilson's driving was criminally reckless.

"I'm still very sorry that this man had to go," Wilson told Lerner. "Even though it wasn't my fault, it still sticks with me every day."

Wilson was driving his pickup truck on Wyalusing Avenue about 6:30 p.m. on Aug. 28, 2010, when he turned onto Lancaster Avenue and collided with Pommells' motorcycle.

Pommells, a member of Engine Company 5 in West Philadelphia, was not wearing a helmet and died after he was thrown headfirst into a utility pole, according to Assistant District Attorney Thomas Lipscomb.

Lipscomb said there was also evidence that Wilson's view might have been partly blocked by a parked truck.

Defense attorney Daniel-Paul Alva asked Lerner to let Wilson serve his sentence on weekends so he could try to keep his job with a Delaware sanitation department.

Lerner, however, said such an accommodation is only for first offenders. The judge ordered Wilson to begin serving his sentence Dec. 2. Wilson was also fined $1,000 and will lose his driver's license for a year.