Somerset man sentenced for 2019 crash that killed Hempfield bicyclist

Nearly four years after Jason Zollinger was killed as he pedaled up Route 30 toward Laurel Mountain summit in Ligonier Township, his family on Monday finally obtained a level of closure.

“I am speaking for my son because he can’t. It’s been 1,392 days since my life changed forever. I am asking the court for the maximum penalty. It won’t bring him back and it won’t make me feel any better, but bad decisions have consequences,” said Robert Zollinger during a sentencing hearing for Adam Ulrich.

Ulrich, 45, of Boswell, Somerset County, pleaded guilty in May to vehicular homicide charges in connection with the Oct. 1, 2019, crash that resulted in the death of 38-year-old Jason Zollinger, project manager for the Bank of New York Mellon and a Saint Vincent College graduate from Hempfield.

Eighteen months after the fatal crash, Ulrich was charged with homicide by vehicle while under the influence of a controlled substance, vehicular homicide, drunken driving and multiple traffic citations.

Westmoreland County Common Pleas Judge Meagan Bilik-DeFazio on Monday ordered Ulrich to serve five to 10 years in prison.

Police said Ulrich hit Zollinger from behind and that at the time of the morning crash was under the influence of a combination of drugs, including methadone, a synthetic opioid painkiller commonly used to treat heroin addiction; clonazepam, an drug used to treat panic attacks; and Xanax, a prescription pill used to treat anxiety.

“When my boy bounced off your windshield, it probably saved your life. It woke you up,” Robert Zollinger said.

Assistant District Attorney Mike Pacek argued for a long sentence, saying Ulrich had 16 criminal convictions over the past two decades, including three guilty findings in the last month for three separate drunken driving incidents in Somerset County that occurred in the months following the fatal crash.

The judge cited Ulrich’s criminal record in rendering the sentence and said she expected him to receive additional prison time for the three Somerset County drunken driving convictions to which he pleaded guilty to earlier in July.

Defense attorney Michael DeMatt asked for leniency, suggesting Ulrich’s prior convictions dated back decades and related to ongoing addiction issues that stemmed from pain medication prescribed following injuries suffered in a traffic crash when he was 18.

“He has tried to handle his opioid abuse. There is litigation about how the methadone clinic handled their actions with regards to Mr. Ulrich about how he was treated and how much supervision he required by this methadone clinic,” DeMatt said.

According to court records, the Zollinger family filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Ulrich, a methadone clinic and three doctors. The civil case remains pending, but details of the case are unavailable because all court filings were sealed from public view by a county judge more than two years ago.

Meanwhile, Ulrich offered an in-court apology to the Zollingers.

“It was an accident. I did what I thought I had to do. I am sorry for what happened, and I did what I thought was right,” Ulrich said.