A homeless couple was sentenced on Monday, Dec. 13, 2021, for two violent carjackings and an attempted carjacking in Newtown Township and Middletown Township in November 2020, sending two people to the hospital.
Eric Meehan, 29, and Ashley Young, 32, both pleaded guilty on Oct. 12 to two counts each of robbery of a motor vehicle and aggravated assault and one count each of criminal conspiracy to commit robbery of a motor vehicle and attempt to commit robbery of a motor vehicle. Meehan also pleaded guilty to three counts of terroristic threats and one count of fleeing or attempting to elude police.
Meehan and Young appeared before Common Pleas Judge Jeffrey L. Finley who sentenced Meehan to 10 to 30 years in state prison and Young to 6 ½ to 20 years in state prison. They were both ordered to pay $7,699.86 in restitution.
Before they were sentenced, Deputy District Attorney Thomas C. Gannon played police dash cam footage that showed Meehan and Young fleeing Bensalem and Philadelphia police in a sport-utility-vehicle. During the escape attempt, they blew through red lights and busy intersections, drove into opposing traffic and onto a sidewalk, and, at one point, nearly struck a pedestrian crossing the street.
Finley described it as “pure luck” that no one else was injured in the pursuit.