A former North Penn School District maintenance man pleaded guilty for his role in a fatal hit-and-run
Nicholas Shaw admitted to hitting Linford Michener in October 2022 and fleeing the scene of the fatal crash.
A Hatfield man who fled the scene of a fatal crash he caused last year was sentenced Tuesday to 1½-to-3 years in state prison.
Nicholas Shaw, 27, pleaded guilty to accidents involving death and disorderly conduct in the death of Linford Michener, whom prosecutors say he struck while driving a work van for the North Penn School District.
Shaw entered the plea a week before he was scheduled to go to trial in the case. His attorney, Matthew Wilcov, did not immediately return a request for comment.
Michener, 83, had been walking along Oak Park Road near his property on Oct. 27, 2022, when Shaw, a groundskeeper for North Penn, swerved off the road and struck him, prosecutors said. Shaw did not stop or render aid to Michener, according to prosecutors.
Investigators responding to a call from Michener’s wife found him lying in the road, unresponsive. He was taken to Abington Lansdale Hospital, where he was later pronounced dead of blunt-force injuries.
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Surveillance footage from a nearby property showed an Econoline van with a North Penn School District logo on the passenger door in the area after the crash, according to the affidavit of probable cause for Shaw’s arrest. Later, at a secure lot at the North Penn School District facilities, investigators found a van with damage to its hood and passenger side.
School district officials said Shaw had been using the van, the affidavit said. At the time of the crash, officials said, he was supposed to be cutting grass at Pennfield Middle School, about 1.5 miles from where Michener was struck.
Surveillance footage taken from the school district’s property showed Shaw getting into the van, which had no visible damage, minutes before Michener was struck and killed, prosecutors said. Not long after, Shaw was seen driving the van back into the parking lot, with the damage investigators later observed.