By Alex Rose
Daily Times, Primos, Pa.
HARRISBURG, Pa. — The Pennsylvania State Police has settled two civil suits involving five plaintiffs who claimed troopers created a dangerous situation in a 2024 high-speed pursuit through Upper Chichester that led to the deaths of five young people, including a pregnant teen.
The first suit settled for $4.25 million for the estates of Kalyn Billups, 21, and Tyjana Motley, 17, who was six months pregnant, as well as two surviving passengers, Kaziyah Pearson, now 18, and Kemone Manning, now 20.
Those plaintiffs are represented by David Inscho and Wyatt Larkin of Kline & Specter, P.C., who filed suit in October 2024.
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Also killed in the crash were 20-year-olds Isaiah Miller, the driver, and Ikeam Castlebury-Rogers, the front-seat passenger.
No filing is on record for the estate of Miller, but a second suit filed by attorney Bryan Hanratty of Keches Law Group, P.C. on behalf of Castlebury-Rogers’ father has also settled for $350,000.
Hanratty did not return calls for comment. An email to the state Attorney General’s Office representing the troopers was also not returned.
“We are pleased to be able to resolve this civil rights action and achieve a settlement that fairly compensates our clients and ensures accountability for the officers’ actions that led to this unnecessary tragedy,” said attorneys Tom Kline, David Inscho and Wyatt Larkin of Kline & Specter.
Named as defendants in both suits were troopers Jason Eckman and Daniel Sgambato, along with up to 20 “John Doe” state police officers.
Former PSP Director of Communications Captain Adam Reed previously said both of the named troopers remained employed and active with PSP.
Background of the case
The deadly crash took place on the afternoon of April 24, 2024, after a red Ford Taurus driven by Miller struck a concrete embankment on Conchester Highway at Chichester Avenue head-on. Miller, Castlebury-Rogers and Billups were all pronounced dead at the scene.
According to the lawsuits:
The Taurus pulled into the Shoppes at Brinton Lake, a shopping center at 949 Baltimore Pike, at about 1:20 p.m. that day. The occupants got out of the car to look for some items that had been misplaced inside the vehicle, but never entered any stores at the shopping center.
While they were looking around the car, the plaintiffs noticed a gray sedan circling in the area. They eventually piled back into the Taurus and headed north on North Brinton Lake Road.
The gray sedan was an unmarked Pennsylvania State Police vehicle driven by Sgambato. He followed the Taurus for about a half-mile before initiating a traffic stop at North Brinton Lake Road and Mill Road at 1:25 p.m.
Eckman arrived about a minute later and stopped behind Sgambato’s vehicle. Ten seconds later, Miller fled the stop on Mill Road and the troopers gave chase.
Miller sped down Mill Road toward Thornton Road and then onto Baltimore Pike, passing other vehicles along the way.
At 1:29 p.m., Miller turned left across three lanes of oncoming traffic at Route 322, Conchester Highway, forcing cars to stop in the intersection to avoid a collision.
Miller then drove onto a grassy median, where Sgambato collided with the Taurus’ rear left bumper. Miller accelerated through the island, narrowly missing a pedestrian who had to jump out of the way. Sgambato also had to swerve to avoid the pedestrian.
Shortly afterward, a person in the rear passenger-side of the Taurus opened the door in an apparent escape attempt, but Miller accelerated again, making the exit unsafe and the passenger closed the door.
“Throughout the chase, plaintiffs and plaintiffs’ decedents pleaded with Miller to stop the car,” the complaint for the four plaintiffs stated. “However, the troopers continued to pursue the red Ford Taurus and Miller continued to drive away from them. After the attempt by the back-seat passenger to open the door, troopers Sgambato and Eckman were aware that passengers in the red Ford Taurus did not want the chase to continue.”
Eckman took over as lead vehicle in the chase after the escape attempt, as it continued eastbound on Route 322. Miller and the troopers passed numerous vehicles and traveled through several intersections along this four-lane strip of road at estimated speeds ranging from 70 to 110 miles per hour.
Miller, Sgambato and Eckman wove through and around passenger vehicles headed in the same direction during the pursuit, forcing at least 10 to pull over as the troopers drove on the right shoulder or crossed the center dividing line.
At approximately 1:31 p.m., five minutes into the chase, Eckman accelerated to a position where he could attempt a precision immobilization technique, or PIT, maneuver, which involves striking the rear of the fleeing vehicle at an angle to make it turn and stop. There were several other passenger vehicles in the immediate vicinity.
Miller accelerated away from Eckman and, for the following 34 seconds, Eckman and Sgambato pursued Miller at increasingly high speeds.
“At approximately 1:32:00 p.m., Miller encountered a line of three vehicles headed east on Route 322,” the complaint reads. “Miller attempted to swerve around the rear two vehicles in the line, entering the right-side shoulder. As he was swerving back into the eastbound lane, Miller lost control of the vehicle, clipped the front of the second vehicle, and crashed head-on into a concrete barrier on the westbound shoulder at 1:32:02 p.m.”
The impact lifted the Taurus into the air before it came crashing back down on its wheels, then caught fire. Manning climbed out of the shattered windshield, burning her back.
The aftermath
Arriving troopers used fire extinguishers and a firetruck soon arrived to assist in these efforts. Two ambulances arrived at 1:44 p.m. Miller, Castlebury-Rogers and Billups were pronounced dead at the scene.
Motley was transported to Crozer Chester Medical Center with a suspected ruptured uterus. An emergency C-section was performed, but the baby boy fetus was pronounced dead. Motely died later that same night.
Pearson, then a minor, suffered a traumatic brain injury and numerous fractures, including several vertebrae, and Manning suffered disfiguring burns and other injuries.
A release from PSP the same day, which has since been removed from the state police website, indicated troopers were “conducting stationary patrol of the Brinton Lake Shopping Center” and claimed that one of the passengers was “believed to be involved in a previous retail theft at the shopping center.”
Several news sources also reported from anonymous sources that the plaintiffs or the decedents had been shoplifting at a Lululemon store that day.
PSP call logs recorded Eckman was responding to an “attempted retail theft” and a dispatcher stated during the chase that troopers were in pursuit of a “red Taurus, tinted windows, for attempted … for a theft on Lululemon.”
“At no … point in time did plaintiffs or plaintiffs’ decedents shoplift from Lululemon or any other store at The Shoppes at Brinton Lake,” the complaint stated. “None of the surviving passengers were arrested or charged with any crime.”
The PSP press release also indicated the Taurus was “observed to have a tinted front windshield, expired inspection stickers, and a Delaware temporary paper registration obscured by a tinted license cover.”
In an NBC 10 interview on May 2, 2024, Reed stated that the occupants of the red Ford Taurus “were acting suspiciously” and that “the reason for the stop was going to be the … equipment violations” listed in the release.
The chase lasted 6½ minutes across approximately 7 miles of roadway. At approximately the halfway point, another trooper had indicated that he was ready to deploy a spike strip on Route 322 that could have disabled the Taurus. This trooper was stationed within sight of the crash location.
While PSP has established policies governing pursuits in its field regulations, the relevant portions of those regulations are not public.
Reed did indicate in the May 2 interview that those regulations allow troopers to pursue a fleeing suspect vehicle, but that they must weigh their duty to apprehend against the risk of public safety.
‘Low danger’
The complaint notes that PSP troopers from the same station engaged in a similar pursuit from the same shopping center Feb. 13 for suspected shoplifting, which likewise ended in a crash.
In this case, none of the occupants of the Taurus were suspected or accused of committing any violent crime, or crimes of any kind, or were in possession of a weapon or suspected of having a weapon.
The defendants further knew the Taurus contained multiple passengers in excess of its safe carrying capacity and seatbelt accommodations, one of which was visibly pregnant.
“Despite the low danger to the public of allowing the driver of the red Ford Taurus to remain at large with alleged equipment violations and the extremely high danger of engaging in a high-speed pursuit of a vehicle with multiple unbelted minor passengers in a busy residential and commercial area in the middle of the day, the defendants engaged in the dangerous and ultimately fatal pursuit,” the initial complaint states. “Despite the lack of any factors presenting a risk to public safety if they terminated the pursuit, defendants then continued the high-speed chase through traffic on busy thoroughfares, narrowly avoiding several crashes, before the deadly crash brought the chase to an end.”
The Castlebury-Rogers settlement for $350,000 apportions $140,000 in attorney’s fees and $24,343 in litigation costs, leaving $185,656 for his estate.
Motley’s estate will likewise receive $1.4 million, or $816,823 after a $560,000 distribution to Kline & Specter, representing 40% of her distribution, and $22,269 in costs for her case.
Billups’ estate will receive $1.3 million, minus a $520,000 payment and $20,773 in costs to the same firm, leaving her $759,226.
A breakdown of the distribution to the two surviving plaintiffs did not require court approval and was not available Friday, but they would have split a remaining pool of $1.55 million.
That works out to an even split of $775,000 apiece before the 40% in attorney’s fees and whatever costs might be attributable to their cases.
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