Potts convicted of criminally negligent homicide

After two days of deliberations, a Nassau County jury convicted 24-year-old Oceanside resident Evan Potts of criminally negligent homicide on Monday but found him not guilty of second-degree manslaughter for the 2009 road rage death of 34-year-old engineer Ian Sharinn.

The maximum sentence for criminally negligent homicide, the lesser of the two charges against Potts, is four years in prison without probation. If he had been convicted of manslaughter, he could have faced up to 15 years in prison.

He will be sentenced Aug. 16.

“This case was extremely challenging, and the jury’s job was not a simple one,” Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice said in a release. “They put an incredible amount of time and effort into their thoughtful review of the evidence. We respect their verdict and we are pleased they held the defendant accountable for his actions.”

The atmosphere in the courtroom of Nassau County Judge Phillip Grella was tense as family members and friends of both Potts and Sharinn awaited the verdict. The proceedings were moved from the trial’s normal courtroom to a larger one down the hall of the Nassau County Courthouse to accommodate the crowd that gathered to hear the verdicts after the six-week-long trial.

As the jury made its announcement, there were gasps of relief from Potts’s family with the words “not guilty,” which quickly turned into gasps of distress with the “guilty” verdict, and Potts’s visibly distraught mother clasped her mouth. Potts showed no emotions, but looked down at the courtroom floor.

Criminally negligent homicide differs from manslaughter in a key way. A conviction for manslaughter means that a defendant knew there was a risk of killing someone and ignored that risk. Potts’s jury found him guilty of criminally negligent homicide after concluding that he did not knowingly run over Sharinn, but did it accidentally, without realizing that Sharinn was there.

After the verdicts were read and the jury was dismissed, Potts and his family, along with his attorneys and the prosecutors from the district attorney’s office, quietly filed out of the courtroom to the lawn outside.

“It’s a bittersweet moment,” said Potts’s attorney, Stanley Kopilow. “This was a major bullet that Evan just dodged.” Kopilow added that he planned to appeal Potts’s conviction in August.

“We do have faith in the jury system,” Kopilow added. “And I believe that there will be no conviction.”