A Philadelphia teenager was sentenced to three and a half to 10 years in state prison and a year of concurrent probation after he pleaded guilty this month to nearly striking two State Police troopers and multiple road workers as he led police on a lengthy high-speed chase in a stolen car.

Judge Jeffrey Conrad sentenced Keniel Ian Junio Wright, 19, after he pleaded guilty Oct. 7 to two counts of aggravated assault, one count each of fleeing or attempting to elude an officer and receiving stolen property, five counts of recklessly endangering another person, a single count of criminal mischief and four different summary traffic offenses.

In handing down the sentence Judge Conrad compared Wright’s actions to those of a Grand Theft Auto video game and said he risked people’s lives, including his own.

“You could have been killed that night,” Judge Conrad told Wright.

Despite what Judge Conrad called “a really bad way to start off adulthood,” he nevertheless encouraged Wright to use his time in state prison to better himself and pursue educational and vocational opportunities to emerge from incarceration as a better person.

Though he did not address the court, an attorney representing Wright said that, as a teenager, he was not fully cognizant of his actions at the time but has come to understand that he seriously endangered himself and many others.

Wright, who was 17 years old at the time, led police on the nine-mile high-speed chase during the early morning hours of May 9, 2024.

A patrolling trooper first spotted Wright speeding and driving erratically along westbound Lincoln Highway near Brackbill Road in Salisbury Township and attempted to pull him over shortly before 1 a.m.

Rather than stopping, Wright accelerated through an active construction zone where traffic was being funneled into a single lane, nearly striking five different construction workers, running over several traffic cones, entering the lane of oncoming traffic multiple times which at one point nearly caused a head-on collision with a tractor-trailer and reached speeds of more than 130 mph.

Spike traps placed along the highway were unable to slow Wright, who nearly struck two State Police troopers in their vehicle head-on near an East Lampeter Township intersection – the basis for the two aggravated assault charges. Wright ultimately crashed his vehicle a short while later onto a property in the 2400 block of Lincoln Highway East in East Lampeter Township, damaging a sign and shrubs.

After crashing the vehicle Wright failed to obey commands from law enforcement and troopers, who were required to use force in order to arrest him.

Once in custody Wright told police he had stolen the vehicle from a stranger the day before. The vehicle’s owner confirmed to police that Wright had forcible robbed him and taken the vehicle in Philadelphia, injuring him in the process.

In addition to the prison sentence Wright must also pay $275 in fines for the traffic offenses.

First Assistant District Attorney Travis Anderson prosecuted the case.

Pennsylvania State Police Trooper Linton Benitez filed the charges.