Police have filed charges against a Pottstown man they say lied about being the driver of a car in a DUI crash that killed his friend.
Robert Bulett, 22, faces two felonies, a handful of misdemeanors and several summary traffic citations in connection to the Dec. 24, 2022, crash in Lancaster County.
Bulett and the passenger of the vehicle, 18-year-old Mason Gentry, were smoking marijuana and had a cocktail of other drugs in their systems as Bulett drove 97 mph down a Salisbury Township road at around 1 p.m. that day, according to state police.
After the crash, Bulett lied for months about being the driver, according to state police. Bulett claimed that Gentry was the driver and that he’d been asking Gentry to slow down before the crash on Cains Road near Lime Quarry Road.
Gentry died from his injuries in the crash. The Lancaster County coroner’s office ruled his death accidental due to multiple traumatic injuries.
Bulett said he did not use any drugs and that he thought Gentry might have been smoking weed.
Bulett came clean about the fact he was the driver months after the crash, after state police used DNA from bloodstains on the car’s airbags to show Bulett was sitting in the driver’s seat and that Gentry was sitting in the passenger’s seat.
Bulett told state police he lied because he was scared of going to jail, and that he went to rehab after the crash. He said he worried he couldn’t be a father to his son from inside a cell.
“I’m sorry. I wish we never did drugs,” Bulett said.
Bulett was driving a Saab 93 that a friend had loaned to Gentry when he crashed into a pole as he missed a curve. The vehicle rolled, and Gentry was ejected. Bulett waved down passing traffic screaming for help, and told police he tried to give Gentry CPR.
State police said along with the items they found in the car were five bags of marijuana, one bag of a “white crystal substance,” a plastic storage container containing marijuana and three glass smoking tubes. At a hospital in Lancaster, security personnel said Bulett had a small black case with methamphetamine inside.
At the hospital, tests showed Bulett had amphetamine, buprenorphine, cocaine, fentanyl and marijuana in his system.
State police charged Bulett with homicide by vehicle and homicide by vehicle while DUI, making false reports to falsely incriminate someone, possession of drug paraphernalia, traffic violations and more.
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Source: Berkshire mont
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