Trial Resumes For Montco Man Who Allegedly Drove Drunk, Left Friend To Die

The jury will resume deliberations Friday in the case of a Lansdale man charged with homicide by vehicle in a 2013 drunken crash.

Sean Christopher Sperl, 23, who was 21 at the time of the incident, fled the scene after the crash, leaving one of his passengers to die, according the Montgomery County District Attorney’s Office.

Sperl was traveling with two passengers at a high rate of speed along Ridge Road just after midnight on April 23 when he crashed into a utility pole, according the Pennsylvania State Police.

One of Sperl’s passengers, Ryan Alexander Petrille, 21, also of Lansdale, was pronounced dead after the crash, due to injuries to the head and neck after the crash.

Sperl, whose blood alcohol level was found to be .175 percent, was traveling at a speed between 83 and 93 miles per hour in a posted 45 miles per hour zone when he crashed on the 400 block of Ridge Road, First Assistant District Attorney Kevin Steele said.

Witnesses near the accident scene said they were awoken to the sound of a loud bang, and they heard two males panicking—one witness overheard one of the males say “Sean dude you can’t leave. There is blood everywhere. You were the driver,” according to information from the district attorney’s office.

The two men than allegedly ran northbound on Ridge Road as a passerby stopped at the crash scene and called 911, according to Steele.

At around 3:25 a.m., the Pennsylvania State Police were contacted by a caller nearby in Salford Township, where a witness said a white male—later determined to be Sperl—had knocked on the door to his house, asking the resident if there was a party, police said.

Police arrived at the home and Sperl, allegedly showing signs of intoxication, told the troopers that he thought he had been in an accident, and that he thought someone died as a result, according to Steele.

According to Steele, items located in the field near the crash included cans of Rolling Rock beer and an open bottle of Jameson Irish whiskey.

In addition to the homicide while DUI, Sperl has been charged with accidents involving death or personal injury, homicide by vehicle and DUI, according to police.

Sperl was arraigned Wednesday before Magisterial District Judge Catherine M. Hummel Fried and bail was set at $50,000.