Appeal to be heard in fatal Chatham crash

April 20--CHATHAM -- When Benjamin Shealey pleaded guilty to killing a pedestrian and seriously injuring twin 9-year-old passengers in another vehicle during a July 2013 high-speed police chase in Chatham, his attorney asked for a reduced five-year sentence, citing his client's admission of guilt, traumatic childhood and struggles with mental illness.

But Barnstable Superior Court Judge Robert Rufo sentenced the 33-year-old Cambridge man to 7 1/2 to 10 years in state prison, and Shealey's attorney, Jens Bahrawy, appealed that sentence within the required 10 days. On May 2, after serving about one year of his sentence, Shealey will have his appeal heard in Suffolk Superior Court in Boston.

Rufo credited Shealey for the year and eight months he had spent in the Barnstable County Correctional Facility awaiting trial, meaning he could have been released within 5 1/2 years. Shealey's father, Glenn, said he was currently at the Massachusetts Correctional Institution-Shirley, which is classified as a medium/minimum-security facility.

"He's wasting taxpayer money," said Rosemary Harris, of Chatham, the grandmother of the injured twins. The girls were in the back seat when Shealey plowed into their parents' car after running down and killing 62-year-old Albert Della Malva, of Orleans, who was waiting for a bus near the Kream N' Kone restaurant in Chatham. Shealey was fleeing from Harwich police, who broke off their pursuit after he rode down the centerline of Route 28 at high speed, forcing cars on both sides of the highway to pull over.

His vehicle had lost a front tire and was riding on the rim when it left the roadway and hit Della Malva, the family's SUV and then came to rest atop a row of parked vehicles. Shealey's blood alcohol level was later measured at 1 1/2 times the legal limit.

According to testimony contained in court documents in a related civil case, the twins have fully recovered from their injuries, which included severe head trauma, a fractured arm and broken jaw. The civil suit against Shealey was settled last year and awarded nearly $600,000 in medical bills, vehicle damage and other costs to Harris' daughter, her husband and the twins.

Shealey has a long record of driving offenses, including a high-speed chase in 2009 when he hit speeds above 134 mph while fleeing Boston and state police. At the time of the Chatham crash, his license was still revoked from the 2009 incident and he had no insurance.

According to his father, Shealey is a diagnosed paranoid schizophrenic who had stopped taking his medications before buying a Land Rover in Rhode Island in July 2013 and driving to Chatham, where most of his extended family lives, from his father's home in Providence.

Glenn Shealey said he had not been notified of the appeal. His brother Frank Shealey, of Chatham, who is listed as an attorney representing his nephew, declined comment, and Bahrawy did not return messages left at his office and on his cellphone.

Benjamin Shealey pleaded guilty April 28 to charges of manslaughter by motor vehicle while under the influence of alcohol, two counts of operating under the influence of alcohol and driving recklessly causing serious bodily injury, assault with a dangerous weapon, resisting arrest and unlicensed and uninsured operation.

Rufo ordered that he remain on his medication for his full prison term and stick with a psychiatric treatment plan as a condition for an earlier release. He also had to submit to random drug and alcohol screens.

Glenn Shealey said he visits his son almost every week, as do other family members.

"He's doing relatively well in prison. He's on his medications. As long as he is, he's perfectly fine," he said.

"He's terribly remorseful for what happened," Shealey said. "He knows he made a big mistake and wishes it never happened."

Harris is unmoved. She thinks the judge's sentence was too light as it is.

"I just feel kind of helpless that it hasn't even been a year since sentencing and they are already trying to connive for a reduced sentence."

-- Follow Doug Fraser on Twitter: @dougfrasercct.

___

(c)2016 Cape Cod Times, Hyannis, Mass.

Visit Cape Cod Times, Hyannis, Mass. at www.capecodtimes.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.