An East Germantown man admitted he struck and killed a wheelchair-bound woman with his car in Lower Merion last year, then fled the scene without helping her or calling police.
Jamal McCullough, 38, pleaded guilty to accidents involving death for hitting Tracey Carey outside the Taco Bell on City Avenue in November of last year.
McCullough entered the plea Tuesday — the day he was expected to go trial — as Carey’s relatives looked on. The family later expressed frustration at their belief that the man who killed her showed little remorse.
McCullough will serve three-to-six years in state prison, the mandatory minimum sentence for the crime to which he pleaded guilty.
McCullough’s attorney, Michael Parkinson, did not immediately return a request for comment.
McCullough struck Carey, 61, with his Toyota Camry on Nov. 11, 2024 as she attempted to cross the highway in her wheelchair. And while prosecutors noted that McCullough was not at fault in the fatal collision because Carey was crossing outside of a posted crosswalk, they said his actions after the crash constituted a crime.
Surveillance footage taken from the scene showed that McCullough hit Carey with enough force to send her body into the air and push it several feet away, according to the affidavit of probable cause for his arrest.
The collision occurred around 2:14 a.m., as McCullough was on his way to begin his shift as a sanitation worker with Waste Management. Afterward, surveillance cameras recorded him pulling into a nearby parking lot to assess the damage to his vehicle and then walking back to the scene of the crash.
Investigators said McCullough walked within feet of Carey’s body, but did not stop to help her.
Another driver who witnessed the crash called 911 and used his vehicle to block traffic and protect Carey, the affidavit said.
She was later pronounced dead at Lankenau Medical Center.
Investigators identified McCullough’s vehicle through broken pieces of the vehicle that were left at the scene, as well as the surveillance footage from the area, according to the affidavit
McCullough’s co-workers told police that in explaining the visible damage to his car, he initially said the vehicle had been hit while it was parked. After his photo was included in news reports about the crash, McCullough told his co-workers he hit a person in a wheelchair and promised to turn himself in.
When detectives came to interview him at his workplace, McCullough said he wanted to take full responsibility for his actions, the affidavit said, and was making arrangements to surrender his vehicle to police.