By JOSEPH KELLARD
But after Potts drove over and killed Ian Sharrin, an engineer from Long Beach, in what police believe was a road rage incident at a city intersection the previous morning, Judge Stanley Smolkin ordered Potts held on a $500,000 cash bail over $5 million bond that his family is unable to pay. And if convicted on second-degree manslaughter charges, Potts faces a maximum of 15 years in state prison. He pleaded not guilty.
Potts’s attorney, Stanley Kopilow, called the bail “unreasonably high,” but said Smolkin gave his client the right to another bail application on Tuesday, when Potts was expected back in court for a formal arraignment.
The Nassau County district attorney’s office recommended that Potts be remanded — not given bail — but according to Kopilow, Smolkin said he thought that was inappropriate.
“The more serious the charge, the more time the defendant faces and the higher the likelihood that the defendant will flee,” said Eric Philips, a spokesman for the D.A. “In this case, he stands accused of a crime that could subject him to a 15-year prison sentence, so the likelihood of flight is significant.”
According to Detective Lt. Kevin Smith of the Nassau County Police Department, Potts and Sharrin were driving aggressively near each other for more than a mile while heading east on West Park Avenue sometime before 10 a.m. on May 15. Potts, driving a black 2008 Nissan Ultima, abruptly turned south on National Boulevard, then made a U-turn and headed back toward West Park. Sharrin, 34, at the wheel of a yellow 1978 Porsche, ran a red light on West Park to block Potts’s car, which faced north on National.
According to a witness in a car behind Potts, Sharrin got out of his vehicle, walked in front of the Nissan, pounding on the hood and yelled profanities at Potts. Potts attempted to back up, but was blocked by the car, and then drove forward, striking Sharrin and running him over. Potts made another U-turn and headed south on National, where, a block away, two pedestrians who witnessed the incident stopped him and pulled him from his car, and he was arrested by Long Beach police, who responded at 9:53 a.m.
With a puddle of his blood and a shoe left on the street, Sharrin was transported to South Nassau Communities Hospital in Oceanside, where he was pronounced at 10:32 a.m.
“He gets out of the car screaming, and the guy drove right over him and squashed him,” said a witness who works in a third-floor office above a nearby AT&T store but did not give his name. “I was horrified. I literally had to turn away before the whole body was crushed ... I just saw a kid panic behind the wheel of a car and not know what to do.”
On Saturday, Kopilow said that while he had not had the opportunity to speak to Potts without police being present, he had heard that his client had tried to call 911 while in the midst of the incident. “This ultimately is a tragedy that’s fueled by anger and rage, unfortunately, on the part of the man who died and further fueled by panic on the part of Evan,” Kopilow said.
At LBPD headquarters on Saturday, a man who identified himself only as Potts’s uncle said, “From what I’ve heard on TV and from what I’ve read in the paper, to follow a kid for a couple of blocks and block him in so he couldn’t get out and beat on his car, there’s something wrong there. A lot more than road rage.”
Kopilow said that Potts has no prior convictions. But according to the district attorney’s office, Potts was convicted in 2006 for criminal trespass and in 2007 for two counts of disorderly conduct, one count of trespassing and one count of unlawful possession of marijuana.
Potts’s mother, Amy, said that her sons lives at home, attends Queens College and works part time delivering for a restaurant in Long Beach. When he was led out of police headquarters on Saturday, Potts wore a T-shirt and black shorts, and sported a “No Gods” tattoo on his forearm.
Sharrin, who stood 6 feet 5, was a car enthusiast who was known around Long Beach for his Porsche. He was on his way to Huntington to complete the purchase of a house, according to his sister-in-law Debbie Sharrin. Department of Motor Vehicle records show that Sharrin had been ticketed for using a cell phone while driving, improper use of a signal and following too closely in 2006 and 2008.
City Manager Charles Theofan said the incident was the first homicide in Long Beach in five years. “These are the kinds of things we occasionally see on the nightly news,” he said, “and you realize how foolish it is — an argument at a traffic dispute to end with the loss of life. How sad, meaningless and foolish.”
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