ALBANY COUNTY — When Laura Ingleston heard that the man who killed her sister in a drunk-driving crash, Andrew Gibson, was finally caught this weekend after failing to show up for his February sentencing, she felt at ease, but was by no means overjoyed. 

“I feel flatlined,” Ingleston told The Enterprise this week. “I’m not happy. I’m not excited. I just feel relieved that maybe the chapter on this can be closed.”

On Tuesday afternoon, Gibson was arraigned in Albany County Court before Acting Supreme Court Justice Roger D. McDonough on charges of first-degree and third-degree bail jumping, both felonies.

Gibson, through his lawyer, pleaded “not guilty.”

Last May, Gibson, who was then 42, crashed headfirst into a minivan driven by Berne resident Lisa Sperry, 55, on Route 401 in Westerlo after moving into the wrong lane, killing her and seriously injuring two of her sons, who were 15 and 18 at the time. 

Gibson’s blood-alcohol content after the crash tested at .23 percent — almost three times the legal limit.

After pleading “not guilty” in June 2021 in Westerlo Town Court to two counts of aggravated vehicular homicide, one count of second-degree manslaughter, and two counts of aggravated vehicular assault, Gibson settled on a plea deal, pleading guilty to aggravated vehicular homicide.

But, when it came time for his sentencing this year, on Feb. 1, Gibson did not show up in court, having been freed from police custody after posting his $160,000 bail. 

He was finally recaptured in Schodack, a Rensselaer County town, after police there got a call on Saturday morning, Aug. 6, about a domestic dispute, Rensselaer County Sheriff’s Deputy Kyle Bourgault told The Enterprise. 

Bourgault said that the sheriff’s office is not giving out details about the incident, but that Gibson has been charged with third-degree criminal mischief, second-degree unlawful imprisonment, second-degree criminal obstruction of breathing, second-degree aggravated harassment, obstruction of governmental administration, and resisting arrest.

Gibson is being held in Rensselaer County jail without bail, said State Trooper Stephanie O’Neil, Troop G’s acting public information officer.

For the past six months, the fact that Gibson had been out in the world and away from justice’s reach weighed heavily on Sperry’s sister, Ingleston, as well as Sperry’s four sons and her husband, all of whom have “been going through a really rough time,” Ingleston said.

Ingleston in particular has been outspoken about her frustration with the legal system that she claimed let him get away, writing in a letter to the Enterprise editor in February that someone who acknowledged he committed a crime should not have been in a situation where he could simply walk off. 

“We, the family of Lisa Sperry, are still waiting for justice, so we can heal,” Ingleston wrote in February. “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.”

In addition to pleading guilty to the reckless homicide charge, Gibson had a weighty criminal history.  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, stretching from Schenectady through the Hilltowns, and 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.

“The first thing on my mind every morning,” Ingleston said this week, “was, ‘When are they going to get him? When is he going to serve his justice? Are they going to get him? Or are they just going to let him go?’”

She added, “It’s been a long time coming … [but] if he didn’t get in trouble, we’d still be waiting.”

Trooper O’Neil told The Enterprise that the state is investigating Gibson’s activity over the past six months, and that the Albany County District Attorney’s Office is aware that he’s in custody, but that there’s no further information for the time being.