KINGMAN – A Golden Valley man apologized to relatives of the Bullhead City pedestrian he left to die in the night after striking her with his vehicle last April. Joseph Whybark, 35, appeared for sentencing Monday after pleading guilty to leaving the scene of an accident involving injury or death and tampering with physical evidence.
“I’m really sorry that you guys lost your mom,” Whybark said to members of the family of Krisandrea Pannell-Cashen, 62. “I mean that from the bottom of my heart.”
Prosecutor Bob Moon challenged the expression of remorse noting that Whybark fled the scene, hid his vehicle and reported it stolen before his arrest some two months after striking and killing the pedestrian in the area of Colorado Road and Brook Drive in Golden Valley.
The victim’s sister told Mohave County Superior Court Judge Derek Carlisle that she is haunted by thinking of Pannell-Cashen lying helpless while Whybark drove away rather than rendering aid at the scene.
Whybark also pleaded guilty to an unrelated burglary of an unoccupied home last June and for prohibited possession of a weapon.
Judge Carlisle structured sentencing orders resulting in a 20-year prison term for Whybark.
- Dave Hawkins
