Man convicted of attempted manslaughter gets 2 1/2 years

A Madison Heights man was sentenced to two and a half years in prison Friday after being convicted earlier this year of wrecking his car into a taxi on the Lynchburg Expressway in the midst of a drug-addled fight with his girlfriend.

William Ellis Roberson, 34, was initially charged with attempted murder of his passenger Crystal Boyd. Police and prosecutors argued he turned into the path of the taxi to try to kill her in the Jan. 28 wreck.

Roberson was convicted of attempted involuntary manslaughter.

“I’m not a violent person,” he told Lynchburg Circuit Court Judge Leyburn Mosby, apologizing to Boyd and to the cab driver.

He said he didn’t intentionally crash into the other car but was high on drugs at the time.

His lawyer, Aaron Boone, told the court Roberson is getting his substance abuse issues under control and wants to put his life back together.

Boone also said that while Boyd didn’t deserve the injuries she sustained in the wreck, she did bear some responsibility for jumping into the car when Roberson was trying to leave an argument at her home in Madison Heights.

Deputy Commonwealth’s Attorney Chuck Felmlee asked Mosby for a five-year sentence, the maximum allowed by law. Felmlee said a 911 call from Boyd while she was in the car captured Roberson saying, “This will end in death.”

He said this conviction is Roberson’s eighth felony.

“How many times has this defendant come to court and said, ‘I just want to start over,’” Felmlee asked.

Roberson also was sentenced to 90 days in jail for assaulting the cab driver.