A Philadelphia man was sentenced up to 10 years in prison in connection with a high-speed car chase in Lehigh County in May 2024, where he nearly hit two Pennsylvania State troopers and road workers in a stolen car, the Lancaster County District Attorney’s Office announced on Thursday.
District Heather L. Adams said in a release that Keniel Ian Junio Wright, 19, was sentenced to three and a half to 10 years for aggravated assault, fleeing or attempting to elude an officer and receiving stolen property, recklessly endangering another person and other related charges.
He pled guilty to those charges on Oct. 7.
At 17, Wright led police on a nine-mile high-speed chase on May 9, 2024.
The DA said a trooper first spotted Wright driving erratically and speeding westbound on Lincoln Highway near Brackbill Road in Salisbury Township, Lehigh County and tried to pull him over. Instead of stopping, he sped through an active construction zone, almost hit five construction workers and got into oncoming traffic many times, almost causing a head-on collision with a tractor-trailer. The DA’s office said Wright was speeding over 130 mph.
Wright ended up crashing the stolen car onto a property in the 2400 block of Lincoln Highway East in East Lampeter Township, causing damage to a sign and shrubs, the DA said. Before the crash, troopers used spike traps in a failed attempt to slow Wright down and he nearly hit two troopers who were in their car in a head-on crash near an intersection in East Lampeter Township.
The release said that Wright told police, while in custody, that he stole the car from a stranger a day before. “The vehicle’s owner confirmed to police that Wright had forcibly robbed him and taken the vehicle in Philadelphia, injuring him in the process,” as stated in the release.
“You could have been killed that night,” Judge Jeffrey Conrad told Wright while handing down his sentence, comparing his actions to the Grand Theft Auto video game.
Wright also has to pay $275 in fines for the traffic offenses.
The release mentions that Conrad encouraged Wright to use his time in prison to better himself and pursue educational and vocational opportunities and to emerge from incarceration as a better person.
While not addressing the court, Wright’s attorney said that as a teenager, he was not fully cognizant of his actions at the time but has come to understand that he seriously endangered himself and many others.