YOUNGSTOWN Hit-and-run driver seeks forgiveness

Gonzalez offered an apology to the victim's family.
By DEBORA SHAULIS
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Joseph Gonzalez said he was less concerned about the length of his prison term than receiving forgiveness from the family of Shaun Summerville, the man he killed in a hit-and-run accident.
"I can't stand walking around with this case on my back," Gonzalez said Monday, before Judge Maureen A. Sweeney of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court sentenced him to six years in prison.
Gonzalez offered "my regrets, my apologies, whatever they want," he said to 14 of Summerville's relatives and friends in attendance. "I can't give back what they lost. ... I want them to forgive me in any way."
Gonzalez, 24, of Ninth Street, Campbell, was convicted by a jury in February of aggravated vehicular homicide and leaving the scene of an accident. He was accused of driving the Ford Bronco that struck Summerville as he and a friend were walking along Wilson Avenue one night in March 2004. Summerville was killed instantly.
Sentence
Judge Sweeney sentenced Gonzalez to six years in prison for aggravated vehicular homicide, a second-degree felony, and a concurrent six-month prison term for leaving the scene of an accident, which is a first-degree misdemeanor.
Gonzalez also received a concurrent two-year prison term on an unrelated charge of having weapons while under disability, which means he wasn't permitted to carry a weapon because of a prior violation.
Assistant County Prosecutor Robert J. Andrews had asked the judge to give Gonzalez the maximum eight-year sentence because Gonzalez left the scene.
Summerville's family also wanted Gonzalez to receive the greatest penalty. "Even though the damage you did to my son was beyond repair, you didn't know that and you didn't care," Summerville's mother, Robin Faust, said to Gonzalez in her victim impact statement.
Gonzalez's mother, Sonia Vasquez of Campbell, said afterward that the sentence was too harsh and should be appealed. Gonzalez didn't know what he hit at first but turned himself in later and accepted responsibility. "He took it as a man," Vasquez added.
shaulis@vindy.com