A Montgomery County man was sentenced to seven to 14 years in state prison after he pleaded guilty to causing a crash that killed a Warwick Township teenager in 2022, then lying to police by claiming he wasn’t the driver.

Judge David Ashworth sentenced Robert Thomas Bulett, of Pottstown Borough, after he pleaded guilty Aug. 20 to homicide by vehicle while driving under the influence, homicide by vehicle, driving under the influence, false reports to law enforcement, three misdemeanor drug offenses and four summary driving offenses.

Bulett, 23, was under the influence of multiple drugs when he crashed into a utility pole near the intersection of Cains and Lime Quarry roads in Salisbury Township the afternoon of Dec. 24, 2022. Bulett’s passenger, 18-year-old Mason Gentry, died of his injuries shortly after the crash.

When police spoke to Bulett he initially claimed that he was a passenger in the vehicle, while Gentry, who he said was high on marijuana, was driving. Bulett claimed to police that he had told Gentry to slow down shortly before the collision.

Police then spent more than a year investigating the crash before DNA samples taken from the passenger-side airbag showed that Gentry, not Bulett, had been sitting in the passenger seat at the time of the crash. When police confronted Bulett with the DNA evidence he admitted to having been the driver, telling investigators he initially lied because he was scared.

A reconstruction of the crash revealed that Bulett was traveling nearly 100 mph in a 40 mph zone when he failed to maintain a curb, lost control of the vehicle and traveled off the highway and into the pole shortly after 1:30 p.m. The vehicle continued to roll for more than 100 feet after the collision.

Police arrived to find Gentry, who had been ejected from the vehicle, unconscious and seriously injured. Gentry was pronounced dead inside an ambulance while being taken to a hospital.

Drug tests showed Bulett had marijuana, cocaine, amphetamine, buprenorphine and fentanyl in his system in the hours after the crash. Investigators also found marijuana, methamphetamine and drug paraphernalia inside the vehicle.

This is Bulett’s third lifetime DUI conviction, all within the last 10 years.

Assistant District Attorney Chris Miller prosecuted the case.

Pennsylvania State Police Trooper Jonathan Lear filed the charges.