A Sylvania man was sentenced to serve up to 12 years in prison for striking and killing a bicyclist with his vehicle last year while intoxicated.
Brian Urbanski, 37, appeared before Judge Stacy Cook on Wednesday in Lucas County Common Pleas Court, where the judge sentenced him to serve a minimum of 8 of the 12 years in prison before being granted the possibility of parole. Urbanski’s driver’s license was also suspended for life, and he is forbidden from purchasing or owning a vehicle.
Urbanski pleaded no contest on Monday to aggravated vehicular homicide. He originally faced four charges — two of aggravated vehicular homicide and two of operating a vehicle under the influence of alcohol, drugs, or a controlled substance. He pleaded not guilty to all counts in November, 2021, and one year later, reached a plea agreement with the state.
The Ohio State Highway Patrol reported that on March 6, 2021, Urbanski’s vehicle veered across West Bancroft Street in Springfield Township. He struck and fatally injured bicyclist Robert Rausch, 51, of Toledo, who was riding in the opposite direction. Mr. Rausch was pronounced dead at the scene, which was in the 7300 block of West Bancroft near Wimbledon Park Boulevard.
Urbanski’s blood sample contained a cocaine metabolite, an amphetamine, and methadone, court documents showed.
During his sentencing on Wednesday, Urbanski’s defense attorney, James Popil, acknowledged Urbanski has struggled for years with drug addiction and has a checkered criminal history, with convictions that include forgery, theft, driving while intoxicated, and having heroin in his system, which resulted in his driving privileges being suspended.
He added Urbanski has physical ailments, including heart issues via endocarditis, and that his long history of mental health issues have left him without family willing to offer him support once he’s released from prison. Based on all this, he simply asked Judge Cook to give his client a reasonable sentence.
“I know that there are many, many times in the year and a quarter that I've represented him where he has shown tremendous remorse and I understand the Rausch family has suffered a great loss here and my client has a number of times said that, ‘I wish it was me instead of him,’” Mr. Popil said. “He didn't deserve this, and that's true that Mr. Rausch didn’t deserve this.
“But unfortunately, we have to be fair in what type of sentence is imposed here and I’m just asking the court to weigh all the factors and to render a mandatory prison sentence that will fairly and accurately punish my client for the court’s view of the evidence in this manner,” he added.
Urbanski also spoke and asked if he could address Mr. Rausch’s family members in court. Judge Cook asked the family if they would allow it, to which they declined. Urbanski then apologized and asked their forgiveness for his actions.
Mr. Rausch’s wife, Lindsay, stood before the judge and tearfully told her that Urbanski’s actions devastated her family. She said she wasn’t home when law enforcement came to their door to inform them her husband had been injured. Instead, she said her oldest son first heard the news.
She said her children — ages 16, 14, and 12 — have all struggled with anxiety and other mental health issues since the day they lost their loving father and she her husband of 17 years.
“Even though I have over a year and a half later, I am still in the state of shock to the horror of the death each day,” she said. “Our loss cannot be put into words — it is massive and devastating. It will never go away.
“Your honor, I asked you to impose a maximum sentence on [Urbanski] so that no one else should ever have to go through a loss like this at the hands of this man,” she said.
Before sentencing him, Judge Cook said Urbanski’s criminal file dates back to a young age and that despite multiple opportunities to receive help for his mental illness and drug addiction, he instead continuously chose to disregard rules and disregard humanity.
Despite all his excuses and claims that he’s sorry, Judge Cook said she sees a trend with Urbanski in that he continues to focus on himself — including with his apology on Wednesday, as she said he turned it into an opportunity to paint himself as someone who was driving to help out his grandfather. But really what he was doing was driving on a suspended license with drugs in his system.
“Whether or not you've had a hard life, whether or not drugs have been a problem for you, you also made yourself a weapon,” Judge Cook said. “And every time you got into that vehicle, did whatever you wanted, you were no different to me than a bullet going into a crowd because at some point you were going to connect and victimize somebody.”
Whether Urbanski serves 8 years or 12, Judge Cook also voiced doubts he would improve after leaving prison. She then advised him to begin seriously taking responsibility for his actions instead of blaming drugs or circumstances.
“This sentence won't stop you. You’ll go to prison, you’ll do what people do and find contraband there,” she said. “And unfortunately, you’ll come out on the other end of this likely still addicted and still dangerous.”
First Published November 30, 2022, 6:26 p.m.
