Sentence issued in fatality

Most of a six-month jail
sentence is suspended.

By JEANNE STARMACK

VINDICTOR STAFF WRITER

SEBRING — Family and friends of a man killed in a car crash last year gathered in Mahoning County Court here Tuesday for the sentencing of the man responsible for the accident.

After listening to emotional statements from Michael Fox’s grandmother, mother, aunt and friends, Judge Diane Vettori sentenced Michael Zimbardi, 21, of Boardman for the June 24, 2006, crash that killed Fox, 22, on Route 62 in Green Township.

The judge suspended most of a six-month jail sentence and ordered he pay a $1,000 fine, with $750 suspended. The jail sentence and fine are the maximum Zimbardi could be sentenced to for vehicular homicide, which he pleaded no contest to in January.

Zimbardi, who was traveling as fast as 74 mph according to an Ohio State Highway Patrol accident reconstructionist, crossed the center line and struck Fox’s car.

Fox was driving back to Austintown, where he lived with his grandmother, from a car show in Salem. His grandmother, Leona Little, was also on the road that night, driving back from the car show in a separate car. She passed the accident, which happened after 11:30 p.m. But she did not realize it was her grandson until officials arrived at her door about two hours later to tell her he was dead.

Family’s statements

In court, Little talked about her grandson’s potential and ambitions. He was a real estate agent, had a landscaping business, sold chips and salsa from a trailer at car shows and was a graphic artist, she said.

“I read so many things about you on the Internet,” she told Zimbardi, referring to comments he’d posted on his MySpace page, which were included in a pre-sentencing investigation. “A drug dealer on speed dial ... we need more blow ... it’s gonna snow in Boardman,” she said.

Fox’s mother, Bobbi Jo Fox, said no one can understand what it’s like to lose a child unless it happens to them. “I’ll never get to be a grandmother, be in his wedding, any of that stuff,” she said.

“I went to pick out flowers for his funeral — I thought I would pick out flowers for his wedding,” said Fox’s aunt, Kelly Baer.

“I’m afraid someone else is going to have to go through this because of that person sitting right there,” said his friend Rachel Blazak.

More than expected

Zimbardi kept his head down. He spoke to the judge before receiving his sentence, though the rest of the court could not hear him. His attorney, James Lanzo, apologized to the survivors on behalf of the Zimbardi family.

Little said the sentencing was “more than what we thought” Zimbardi would get, but if the prosecutor would have charged him with aggravated vehicular homicide, a felony, instead of the misdemeanor vehicular homicide, he would have gotten a harsher sentence. Others agreed.

Assistant prosecutor Martin Hume said he filed the lesser charge because he did not believe evidence supported a conclusion of recklessness, which is the aggravating factor, instead of negligence.

He said speed alone, without the presence of alcohol, drugs or an action, such as talking on a cell phone, is seldom an aggravating factor.