VEHICULAR HOMICIDE Woman pleads guilty in crash

She could receive up to eight years in prison.
By PEGGY SINKOVICH
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
WARREN -- A 57-year-old Arnold Drive Southwest woman has pleaded guilty to an aggravated vehicular homicide charge.
Sandra Carmichael entered the plea Tuesday during a brief hearing in the courtroom of Judge Andrew Logan of Trumbull County Common Pleas Court.
Carmichael is accused of striking Tanara Earnest, 10, of Third Street, on the afternoon of May 9 with her car. Tanara died shortly after being hit, police said. Tanara and two friends were walking on a sidewalk along Highland Avenue when the girl was struck.
Carmichael will be sentenced after a background check by the Trumbull County adult probation department. Ken Bailey, an assistant Trumbull County prosecutor, said Carmichael could receive up to eight years in prison.
"Sentencing will be up to the judge to decide after he reads the information from the probation department and listens to what the victim's family says," Bailey said. "She will also face a mandatory lifetime driver's license suspension since alcohol was involved in the crash."
Judicial release
Because tests revealed that Carmichael had been drinking alcohol before the crash, she will not be eligible for judicial release, Bailey added.
If a defendant is eligible for judicial release, a hearing could be requested and a judge would decide if the defendant should be let out of prison early.
Carmichael and her attorney, Tony Consoldane of the Ohio Public Defender's Commission, declined to comment during the hearing.
Carmichael is being held in the county jail in lieu of a $50,000 bond.
Tanara was a fourth-grader at Roosevelt Elementary in Warren. Last year she was featured in a Vindicator article when she and several classmates wrote letters to city school administrators as part of a journal buddy project.
sinkovich@vindy.com