A district judge on Tuesday lowered bail for a Maryland man accused by police of hitting a Murrysville man with his vehicle while trying to pick up $100,000 in an alleged lottery scam.

District Judge Charles R. Conway reduced 47-year-old Clint OBrian Robinson’s bail from $500,000 to $25,000.

A preliminary hearing was being rescheduled because the victim was unavailable Tuesday, said assistant district attorney Theresa Miller-Sporrer.

Robinson was arrested April 9 after authorities said he had driven 3½ hours from Maryland to Westmoreland County to pick up the cash from the Murrysville man. The arrest was tied to a state and federal investigation into an alleged operation involving Jamaican nationals and a lottery scheme, according to court papers.

Miller-Sporrer opposed a reduction in Robinson’s bond to an unsecured amount, which would have automatically freed him.

“I am not comfortable with an unsecured bond because he has substantial ties to a corrupt organization,” she said.

“A nonviolent corrupt organization,” Conway responded.

Defense attorney Brian Aston said Robinson is married and works as an Uber driver. He argued that the aggravated assault and attempted aggravated assault charges don’t apply because the victim was not seriously injured. Robinson doesn’t have a criminal background, Aston said.

“While I’m sympathetic to someone who has zero criminal history … at the end of the day he tried to run over somebody,” Miller-Sporrer said.

Police were called to Hills Church Road after the victim reported being hit by a Buick. The victim told investigators he had been talking by phone to men “who appear to have Jamaican accents” for the previous six weeks after his elderly mother filled out a postcard for what she believed was a Publisher’s Clearing House sweepstakes, according to court papers.

The callers claimed the victim won $5 million, but that they needed $100,000 to release the money. When the courier arrived to pick up the cash, the victim stood in front of the car and called 911. Police caught up with Robinson about 4 miles away.

Robinson was being held in the Westmoreland County Prison. A new date for his preliminary hearing had not been set.

Copyright ©2025— Trib Total Media, LLC (TribLIVE.com)