Investigators said Kenneth Ruch was going nearly 75 mph in a 40 mph zone when he blew through a yellow traffic light in his Jeep and struck and killed two sisters in a crosswalk.
One of the sisters, 19-year-old Kimberly Phillips, was dismembered by the impact. Her body was found 270 feet from the point of impact, minus her severed left leg. The other victim, Loraya Braxton, was 10 years old.
Ruch, 51, of Philadelphia, is serving a 7- to 14-year prison term for killing the sisters.
If he thought a state Superior Court panel was going to have pity on him, he was wrong.
In an opinion by Judge Jacqueline O. Shogan, the court rejected Ruch’s appeal, concluding he fully deserves his jail term and his convictions on involuntary manslaughter and homicide by vehicle charges.
The incident that led to those convictions occurred at 11:40 p.m. on Jan. 28, 2017.
Police said Ruch was racing down Roosevelt Boulevard in Philadelphia at 82 mph when the car in front of him began to slow for the yellow light at the intersection with Large Street. Instead of trying to stop, Ruch hit the gas, veered around the other car and rocketed into the intersection.
He tried to brake in the split-second before he struck the sisters, but it was futile, given the speed of his Jeep Wrangler, investigators said. They said he admitted to striking them moments later as he stood by his damaged Jeep. Ruch also admitted he had been drinking before the crash, police said.
In his failed appeal, Ruch tried to shift the blame for the crash to the sisters. He said they were in the crosswalk before the traffic light at the intersection had turned red. Ruch also claimed his prison term is too steep.
Shogan didn’t buy either argument. Instead she sided with Philadelphia Judge Glenn B. Bronson, who imposed Ruch’s penalty after presiding over his jury trial.
In his own opinion on the case, Bronson concluded the blame for the deaths rests solidly on Ruch. The speed at which Ruch was driving, his alcohol impairment and his recklessness were what killed the sisters, Bronson found.
“The evidence established that the two victims would be alive if (Ruch) had driven close to or slightly above the speed limit,” he wrote.
