WESTERLO — Andrew R. Gibson, the Westerlo resident who pleaded guilty to reckless homicide following a multi-vehicle crash last year that injured two Berne-Knox-Westerlo students and killed their mother, Lisa Sperry, failed to appear for his sentencing on Feb. 1, leading to an Enterprise review of his criminal history that goes as far back as 2003. 

Sperry’s sister, Laura Ingleston, wrote a letter to the Enterprise editor this week, describing her family’s frustration over Gibson’s sudden flight from justice.

“We, the family of Lisa Sperry, are still waiting for justice, so we can heal,” Ingleston wrote. “A man caught red-handed, without a doubt of the horrific crime he commited, should have gotten no right to defend himself or the opportunity to run … This is our justice system.”

Albany County Assistant District Attorney Mary Tanner-Richter, the Vehicular Crimes bureau chief, told The Enterprise this week that a bench warrant was issued after Gibson’s no-show, and that, as of Tuesday, Feb. 15, she had not been notified about whether police have yet located him.

Gibson has 30 days from the date of the sentencing to appear if he wants to avoid a potential bail-jumping charge, a class A misdemeanor.

Ingleston also wrote in her letter that Gibson had been offered a plea deal, whereby Gibson pleaded guilty to aggravated vehicular homicide and two counts of bodily injury in exchange for the removal of several other charges ranging from manslaughter to driving while intoxicated to reckless driving. 

Tanner-Richter declined to comment on the reasoning behind the deal as she considers the case still open while the involved parties await sentencing.

“Once he’s found and the sentencing is completed, I’d be happy to provide some information with regard to that,” she said.

As The Enterprise reported in 2021, the crash occurred on the afternoon of May 16 when Gibson, then 42, whose blood-alcohol content later tested at .23 percent — almost three times the legal limit — drove his black 2012 A6 Audi into the wrong lane of County Route 402 in Westerlo. Gibson struck a motorcycle driven by Donald Utter, who endured relatively minor injuries, and soon after struck a van driven by Lisa Sperry head-on.

Sperry, 55, died of her injuries two days later; meanwhile, her teenage sons, Cade and Calvin Sperry, were hospitalized for what they each stated in their respective depositions were numerous broken bones. Gibson’s passenger, Lauren E. Carey, of Westerlo, was also hospitalized for unspecified injuries.

Police records illustrate Gibson as defensive immediately after the crash when he was being questioned by police. At one point, he demanded an officer give him his license back and then declined to submit to a blood-alcohol test, instead challenging the officer to “arrest me, dude,” the records indicate.

He told police that he drank only one beer several hours earlier, and he appears to have severely misrepresented the event as it was described by numerous other witnesses, whose depositions were obtained by The Enterprise.

After his arraignment, Gibson was released on a $160,000 bond that had been posted by his mother, Joyce Gibson, and his stepfather, John Moskow, M.D., both of Austin, Texas, according to court documents. Neither could be reached for comment.

The bond was secured against “Real Property (Westerlo),” according to court papers.

Court papers also list Andrew Ryan Gibson’s home address as 455 County Route 402 in Westerlo. Albany County tax rolls say this property belongs to Westerlo455 LLC with an address of 2201 Plumbrook Drive in Austin, Texas — the same address listed for Joyce Gibson Moskow. The Westerlo property has a full-market value of $228,395.

Gibson’s attorney, James Knox, whom Ingleston said was present at the sentencing and apologized to the court for his client's disappearance, did not immediately return a call from The Enterprise.

Criminal history

This is not Gibson’s first time in trouble with the law in New York State, nor his first violent offense. 

In 2003, The Enterprise reported at the time, Gibson, then 24, was arrested along with two friends by Albany County Sheriff’s deputies after a 40-mile car chase in a stolen truck, charged with two felonies: third-degree larceny and third-degree possession of stolen property.

In 2004, he was sentenced to two to four years in prison for third-degree grand larceny, according to court records, following that dramatic episode in which he also attempted to run over an Albany County sheriff’s deputy.

The records also indicate that he had been convicted of third-degree criminal possession of stolen property and two counts of reckless endangerment; in addition to the prison sentence, which cited only the grand larceny conviction, Gibson was ordered to pay $2,345.33 in restitution, with the judge citing the additional convictions. 

Other records reference the fact that, in 2015, one week before his 36th birthday, Gibson was arrested and later charged with third-degree criminal possession of an assault weapon, fourth-degree criminal possession of stolen property, and fourth-degree criminal possession of a weapon. The details of the arrest are not clear, and the records reviewed by The Enterprise do not indicate any sentencing stemming from these charges.

However, from depositions and other material relating to Gibson’s 2004 convictions, a portrait of a troubled man emerges. 

According to recorded statements from Gibson and the two people he was arrested with early in the morning on Oct. 22, 2003 — Ashley Hayes, of Schenectady, whom he had met at a house party, and Robert L. Costello, of South Carolina, whom he had met in rehab — the three friends were driving around the city of Schenectady in Costello’s grandmother’s Lincoln Continental (which Costello said he took without permission) while smoking marijuana when Schenectady Police attempted to pull them over, leading to a chase, with Gibson reportedly behind the wheel. 

Having lost the police on a road near Altamont Avenue and driving around aimlessly in Knox, Gibson and Costello switched places in the car, according to Hayes, and Gibson reportedly told Costello to drive to Gibson’s grandfather’s house on Cass Hill Road, which was listed on court records as Gibson’s home address. Cass Hill Road, which has a Voorheesville mailing address, actually runs from Reidsville in Berne to Clarksville in New Scotland.

Hayes, according to court records, stated that, somewhere on the Hill, Costello backed the car into a ditch, and the three of them set off on foot and came across a parked pickup truck which Gibson broke into and started up (although Costello stated that Hayes and Gibson had left him behind and reappeared with the stolen truck).

Now in the stolen truck, the trio continued to drive around with no commonly understood plan until police picked up their trail and another chase ensued. Although neither Hayes, Costello, or Gibson referenced any attempt to hit a sheriff’s deputy, the deputy involved stated that Gibson had “intentionally, knowingly, and unlawfully” tried to strike him with the vehicle on Irons Lane in Berne, presumably during this second chase.

The chase ultimately ended when Gibson lost control of the truck at a high speed and crashed into a tree in Berne.

Hayes stated that, after the three took off on foot again, she and Gibson were running together in a wooded area with Costello somewhere off in the distance, only audible to them. Hayes eventually gave up running, she said, and laid on the ground until she was found by police, who at that point had already caught up with Costello.

It’s unclear what happened with Gibson at this point, as his statement is far more brief than his colleagues’, and was apparently made spontaneously from the back of a police car.

“The only reason I did it was I didn’t want to get shot,” Gibson is quoted as saying by a sheriff’s deputy. “I thought that after what happened in Schenectady we’d get shot. That’s the only reason I ran.”

Just over 18 years later, and now from charges far more serious than haphazard driving and drug use, Gibson appears to be on the run again.

“It feels like it’s [Lisa Sperry’s] family that’s getting punished more than him,” Ingleston told The Enterprise this week. “We’re going in and out of court, and then he runs, and we don’t hear anything other than, ‘We didn’t catch him.’ … He shouldn’t be out there. I just worry about who the next victim is going to be.”