Warren woman pleads innocent to charges linked to hit-and-run fatality

WARREN -- A Warren woman has pleaded innocent to an aggravated vehicular homicide charge after the 79-year-old Hubbard man she is accused of driving over died in the hospital.
Nakieta Owens, 30, of 655 Bane St. S.W., entered the plea Wednesday in the courtroom of Trumbull County Common Pleas Court Judge W. Wyatt McKay after a grand jury indicted her last week on the second-degree felony.
This was a superseding indictment; she was previously charged with vehicular assault, hit and run and tampering with evidence and pleaded innocent to those charges in July.
She is free on $15,000 cash or surety bond, which she posted in July. The new charge came about because the victim in the case, Frank Randolph of 2103 Thomas Road, died in the past month, Lt. Don Bishop of the Warren Township Police Department said. Randolph was injured March 24 outside the Golden Stallion bar on Main Avenue Southeast, Bishop said.
Police believe Owens and Randolph had been together that afternoon, but around 3 p.m. Randolph was outside Owens' vehicle and they were arguing about money, and Owens drove over him, Bishop said.
Owens left the scene and hid the vehicle, he said. A few days later, Owens called police and told them where the vehicle was and gave officers a "full confession as to what happened," Bishop said. Randolph suffered numerous injuries and spent some time in a rehabilitation facility before going recently to St. Elizabeth Health Center, where he died, Bishop said.