Wiping away tears, Ryan Lisabeth stepped in front of a Fulton County judge Thursday, steadied himself and prepared to apologize.
The 29-year-old — bearded and wearing a blue jail jumpsuit — was about to be sentenced to 30 years in prison after pleading guilty to charges that he drove high on heroin and mowed down three boys on an Atlanta sidewalk last year, killing one and seriously injuring two others.
Isaiah Ward, 9, died from injuries he sustained in the crash. His older brother, Roland, suffered a broken leg and pelvis. And a friend, Timothy Hood, suffered a fractured skull and a traumatic brain injury before falling into a coma. Crying, the boys’ mothers watched from the courtroom as Lisabeth stepped before the judge, his wrists shackled.
“To the families of the Wards and the Hoods, I would like to say to them and the community that has been directly affected by this accident — I would just like to apologize to them,” Lisabeth told Fulton Superior Court Judge Henry Newkirk. “I want to tell the Wards that I am extremely sorry for their loss. And I wish more than anything that I could reverse time or trade places with their son. I can’t.”
The emotional sentencing hearing illuminated the tragic consequences of the nation's opioid and heroin crisis. It also touched on race — he is a white man from an affluent part of rural Cherokee County and the victims are black youths from a bleak part of Atlanta — and cast a bright spotlight on "The Bluff," a notorious part of the city that has struggled for years with drug crimes.
For the first time in the months-long legal case, Lisabeth's attorney, Ashleigh Merchant, disclosed that Lisabeth bought his heroin in the Bluff and that – unbeknownst to him – it was laced with a powerful painkiller called fentanyl. Drug dealers have started spiking heroin with the drug because — while it can be lethal in small amounts — it can boost the euphoric effects of heroin.
Lisabeth, who has an extensive record of drug convictions, injected the heroin and fentanyl before speeding down Joseph E. Boone Boulevard on April 15, veering over the center line and driving up onto the sidewalk where he struck the three children. He never hit the brakes on his 2009 Red Toyota Corolla. He was overdosing, Merchant said, so emergency workers had to revive him after the crash with Narcan, a drug that reverses the effects of overdoses.
Moments before Lisabeth was sentenced, Timothy Hood’s mother told the judge her son is still coping with his injuries. He struggles when he is asked to do several things at once, Teresa Lawrence said. He has been forced to stop playing football. Other kids are picking on him.
“I’m thankful this day has come and we are able to bring closure to everything,” she said. “I just ask that justice be done.”
Later, Lisabeth’s mother, Debbie, sobbed as she asked the judge to show her son mercy. Her husband, David, and other relatives wiped away tears as they watched her describe her son as kind-hearted young man, an animal lover, an artist and an accomplished woodworker who intended to go to college.
“I mourn for the loss of Isaiah,” she said. “And I pray for the recovery for both Timothy and Roland — not just for their physical recovery but for their emotional recovery. I pray for their families.”
“But I also pray for my son,” she continued. “From my heart, I know he did not mean to do this. And I know that if he was not using, he would have been the first one there to try to offer assistance.”
Her son, she said, has struggled with addiction since 16 and has been in and out of rehab. He was getting help when he drove high that day in April. Years ago, she said, her son visited The Bluff for heroin.
“I have to ask myself and I have to bring this up: Why do the Bluffs exist? And why as a society do we not bear some responsibility for their existence? It is not just Ryan,” she said. “And we know there is heroin. We know they are dealing out of those vacant buildings. And it has been going on for years.”
LaFreddie Smith, Isaiah and Roland’s uncle, dismissed the discussion about The Bluff as a tactic designed to make it look like the community was to blame for Lisabeth’s car crash. He also questioned whether Lisabeth bought his heroin in that area or somewhere else. Smith was disappointed Lisabeth didn’t get a longer sentence.
In all, Lisabeth faced 49 years in prison on a variety of charges, including three counts of vehicular homicide, six counts of serious injury by vehicle, possession of heroin, driving under the influence of drugs, reckless driving and driving on the wrong side of the road.
“It is not justice,” Smith said as he stood outside the courtroom with Isaiah’s mother, Michelle. “He will be 59 — almost 60 — when he comes out, which means he gets to start over. He gets a second chance at life. We don’t get that. Isaiah is gone. Roland is not mentally there. When you look at him, it is like he is literally staring into space.”
Roland, Smith told the judge, is now afraid of white people because he associates them with Lisabeth. When he was getting therapy at the hospital, Smith said, Roland got “freaked out” by the white doctors there.
“I hate to say it like this, but my nephew Roland… has a fear of Caucasian people because in his eyes, ‘They took my brother. They, not one individual,’” Smith said. “How do you convince a 12-year-old that all Caucasian people are not the same based on the actions of one individual?”
Before sentencing Lisabeth, the judge scanned the room and referred to the misery all three families are enduring. Then he turned to Lisabeth.
“You obviously have a very loving family,” Newkirk told him. “Those young boys do, too.”
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