Man to serve 3 years for hit-run fatality

WARREN -- A 38-year-old Youngstown man was sentenced Thursday to three years in prison in the hit-and-run death of a Liberty man.
Rodney Pippen was sentenced to prison by Judge John M. Stuard of Trumbull County Common Pleas Court, after pleading guilty to vehicular homicide while driving under suspension and failure to stop after a fatal accident.
Pippen was charged after a Dec. 17, 2004, two-vehicle crash at Belmont and Trumbull Avenue in Liberty; Clayton Orechoneg of Liberty was killed.
Judge Stuard also suspended Pippen's driver's license for five years and ordered him to pay $55,000 in restitution to the insurance carrier that paid Orechoneg's family.
Authorities said Pippen was driving his vehicle along Belmont, ran the red light and collided with the Orechoneg vehicle.
Pippen left the scene of the accident but surrendered to police hours later.