A St. Johns County man was sentenced this month to five years in state prison for a January hit-and-run crash that critically injured a Hastings teenager waiting for his school bus, The Citizen has learned.
The case, which drew widespread community attention, involved 17-year-old Maslin Mooney, who was found unconscious along the roadside after authorities say Andrew Robinson struck him with a pickup truck and left the scene.
The father of the teen, who continues to suffer long-term effects from the crash, has filed a separate civil lawsuit against Robinson seeking damages.
Court records show that Robinson entered a plea of no contest in the case on November 5.
He was sentenced to five years in state prison, with 281 days of credit for time already served. He also received a three-year driver’s license suspension and will be required to complete three years of reporting probation.
According to the court, the sentence was imposed in line with state sentencing guidelines.
Mooney was discovered lying motionless on the shoulder of the road by a shocked passing motorist roughly 40 minutes after the collision.
Sheriff’s investigators later determined that Robinson had hit the teen as he waited for his school bus in the early-morning hours of Jan. 10 before driving away without calling for help.
Robinson was taken into custody after an investigation by the St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office and charged with leaving the scene of an accident with serious injury, a felony.
The teen suffered a brain bleed, multiple broken bones and other significant injuries, according to the civil lawsuit, which states that he continues to experience lasting impairments. “The losses are either permanent or continuing and Plaintiff will suffer the losses in the future,” the filing says.
Investigators said Robinson never called 911 and never returned to the scene. Instead, he texted his girlfriend that he believed he had hit a deer and saw “no blood.” Despite acknowledging that he struck something, he waited nearly 13 hours before a family friend contacted authorities on his behalf.
The crash occurred in the rural Flagler Estates community. When deputies called Robinson, he repeated his claim that he thought he hit a deer and directed officers to his 2017 Dodge Ram, which was later found behind an RV in Green Cove Springs. The truck showed damage consistent with the crash.
Robinson agreed to meet with deputies but declined to answer questions without a lawyer. Cell-phone location data contradicted his account of stopping to check the area, and physical evidence indicated Mooney had been standing off to the side of the road—not in the center, as Robinson suggested.
A co-worker told investigators that Robinson appeared distraught after learning of news reports about the crash, but he still waited hours before any report was made.
