Pennsylvania family disappointed after hit-and-run driver who left child paralyzed in Chester is sentenced

Family members of a 9-year-old boy critically injured in a hit-and-run crash in Chester, Pennsylvania, are expressing their disappointment at the sentencing of the driver responsible. 

Ny'Leek Ellison was hit by a car on Feb. 4, 2025. The crash left him paralyzed from the neck down.

On Tuesday, the driver, Caleb Campbell, was sentenced to 1.5 to three years in prison for aggravated assault. In a separate, unrelated case, Campbell also received three to six years for possession with intent to deliver drugs.

In December, Campbell pleaded no contest to charges related to the crash.

Ny'Leek's family calls the sentence a slap on the wrist.

"I'm just disappointed, like, I don't know what else to feel," Ny'Leek's mother, Anita Carrington, said. "I'm mad. I'm angry."

Campbell's family was also in court, but declined to comment after the sentencing.

Prosecutors said Campbell hit Ny'Leek after the boy got off a SEPTA bus at 9th and Tilghman streets. Instead of stopping to help, police said, Campbell drove away. Police said they tracked him down and arrested him on Feb. 27, 2025.

"So he [Campbell] did apologize, and Ny'Leek was accepting his apology," Carrington said. "That don't mean it makes it better."

Ny'Leek spent five months in the hospital following the crash and now breathes with the help of a ventilator.

"It's just looking at my son with a trach in his throat, that's hard," Carrington said.

While the court handed down several years in prison, the family said the outcome doesn't match the severity of the crime.

"I was expecting a little bit more," Ny'Leek's father, Micah Ellison, said.

Even Ny'Leek himself expressed frustration: "I was hoping we got justice," he said.

Prosecutors echoed that sentiment.

"While the defendant will one day complete his term, this family's reality will not end," said Delaware County Deputy District Attorney Gina Gorbey-Zarko, who prosecuted the case. "The harm endures long after the sentence is served."

Support for Ny'Leek has poured in from across the region. His mother has turned her pain into action, launching a clothing line to help cover medical costs and spread a message.

"Slow down, save a life," Carrington said, repeating the message from a shirt.

While the criminal case is closed, the family said their journey is just beginning. Carrington said she is determined to keep fighting for her son and others.

"We don't want just justice for ourselves," Carrington said. "We want justice for all hit-and-run victims around the world."

Delaware County District Attorney Tanner Rouse praised Ny'Leek's bravery and resilience.

"What happened to Ny'Leek as a result of Caleb Campbell's recklessness is horrific and life-altering," Tanner said. "His [Ny'Leek's] courage is extraordinary, but this was preventable."

Ryan R. Grace, Campbell's defense attorney, described the crash as an accident.

"Owing to separate — and themselves very troubling — reasons related to an impoverished school district, a SEPTA bus deposited the very young child onto a sidewalk, to run across a busy street toward his waiting mother," Grace wrote in a sentencing memorandum. "The large, public bus inappropriately stopped in the middle of a block and let the small boy off without the normal ability of a school bus to stop traffic around it."

Grace said the crash occurred as Campbell was trying to pass the SEPTA bus.

"Unfortunately, as Mr. Campbell's vehicle accelerated along the left side of the lengthy SEPTA bus, the young boy darted out from in front of it at the very last moment," the memorandum continues. "Horrifically, he stepped almost directly in front of Mr. Campbell's vehicle and was ejected into the air. The poor little boy should never have been crossing that part of the street alone; trying to pass the bus was an abhorrently regrettable decision; and Mr. Campbell should have remained at the scene."

Grace added that Campbell told Ny'Leek's family in court that he is sorry for what happened and even wishes he could trade places with them.

"Mr. Campbell humbly stands before this Court, recognizing he was part of an unimaginable harm, and he accepts responsibility for the offense — despite the viable trial defenses of intent and causation," Grace wrote in the memorandum.