LAKEPORT, Calif. – The man responsible for a June hit-and-run that injured a child has been sentenced to state prison.
Andrew James Gravlee, 28, of Nice, received a five-year state prison sentence in Lake County Superior Court from Judge Andrew Blum on Monday.
Deputy District Attorney Ed Borg said Gravlee reached an agreement to plead guilty to assault likely to produce great bodily injury and a special allegation of personal infliction of great bodily injury. Gravlee originally had been charged with hit and run and reckless driving with bodily injury.
On June 26, Gravlee drove a 2015 GMC U-Haul pickup that hit a 2002 Honda Accord parked on the side of Highway 20 in Lucerne, as Lake County News has reported.
The crash caused the Honda to roll forward and hit a girl who was standing in front of the vehicle. Authorities said that the crash broke both of her legs and left her with lacerations.
Borg said that, after the wreck, witnesses saw Gravlee get out of the truck and look at the girl before he got back in the pickup and fled the scene. The injured girl later was flown by air ambulance to UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital Oakland.
The California Highway Patrol would conduct an extensive search by ground and with the aid of an agency helicopter for Redding before finding the pickup – loaded with appliances and furniture – later that day in the hills north of Lucerne.
The CHP said its officers would develop information that led them to conclude Gravlee was a person of interest in the crash.
Gravlee was arrested the following day after an alert CHP officer encountered him riding as the passenger in a vehicle that the officer had pulled over during a routine enforcement stop.
On Monday, the injured girl's grandmother gave a “pretty intense” victim impact statement to the court in which she recounted what her granddaughter has endured as a result of the crash, Borg said.
Borg said the grandmother explained that the girl has undergone surgery to repair a compound fracture, has suffered scarring about which she is self-conscious, and appears to be suffering from post traumatic stress disorder and agoraphobia.
Ultimately, despite what the family has endured, Borg said the girl's grandmother indicated that she has forgiven Gravlee.
Borg said Gravlee had a history of criminal violations primarily committed in Washington state, including a felony trafficking conviction. At the time of the June crash he was on felony probation.
Until this case, Gravlee had no strikes. However, Borg said the special allegation of personal infliction of great bodily injury makes the main charge of assault likely to produce great bodily injury a violent felony and therefore a strike.
Gravlee must serve 85 percent of the five-year prison sentence before becoming eligible for parole, Borg said.
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