A Pennsylvania man was convicted on Monday after running over a 14-year-old kid and leaving him to die in the street “like roadkill.”
James Shulski, 36, was sentenced to 2 1/2 to 5 years in state prison for the murder of Harlem Dennis after agreeing to a plea deal in September that included admitting guilt to breaching “stop-and-render-aid” rules and a reduced felony charge of accidents involving death or bodily harm. Instead of a felony 2, prosecutors agreed to reduce the accidents involving death charge to a felony 3 as part of his plea.
“There’s nothing that will bring Harlem back, nothing that will fill this void in my children’s and my hearts,” Terandace Dennis, the victim’s mother, told the Bucks County Courier Times on Monday at Shulski’s sentencing hearing.
“But I would like to see this man be away from his family like Harlem is away from his,” she told me.
Shulski’s defense attorney, Paul Lang, reportedly read a letter of apology to the Dennis family before he was sentenced, expressing his “deep regrets” for the “terrible actions” that Shulski took that night in July 2023 when he struck and killed Harlem Dennis while crossing a street in Bensalem.
Shulski reportedly said he felt awful for not remaining at the scene and promised to make amends with the Dennis family. Terandace Dennis, however, claims that he is unable to provide them with what they actually desire.
“I can’t help but to think what if the driver stopped and called for help instead of getting out of the car and looking at my 14-year-old son and then getting back in his car and driving off and going about his night,” according to the Courier Times. “He left him there like roadkill.”
According to the Courier Times, the settlement Shulski was offered for Harlem Dennis’ killing resulted in his prospective prison sentence being reduced by half, from a maximum of ten years to five. Bucks County Common Pleas Judge Jeffrey Finley, who is overseeing his case, told Shulski on Monday that while he had reached a plea agreement, it did not change the reality that he abandoned a youngster to die.
“Rather than have the courage to stay there and provide assistance and cooperate with police, you took this from an accident to criminal conduct,” Finley said, calling the deadly accident “horrible.”
According to police, Harlem Dennis was heading with another youngster from a Red Roof Inn to a nearby convenience store to purchase some food when Shulski hit him. A gray Honda Accord was seen driving in the same area as the incident on surveillance video.
According to a press release from Bensalem Police, the vehicle that struck the child was followed backward using surveillance cameras. “Prior to the crash, the registration of the striking vehicle was captured by a license plate reader.”
The automobile was subsequently tracked down to Shulski, who was linked to the accident via cellphone records.
“A detailed review of those records placed James Shulski’s cellular phone near the crash scene at the time of the incident,” the investigating officer said. “A search warrant for his DNA was served, and the DNA recovered from the vehicle’s steering wheel matched the known DNA sample of James Shulski.”
Two months before the deadly incident, Sulski was arrested in Warminster on DUI charges. He was convicted earlier this year and sentenced to between 72 hours and six months in jail.
Shulski, who was out on $100,000 bond while the case was underway, was reportedly granted a 60-day delay to begin serving his sentence for the crash that killed Dennis.
