January trial set in marijuana case

YOUNGSTOWN — Christiaen A. Lively, 21, of Parkwood Avenue, appeared in municipal court Friay for a pretrial hearing on a drug abuse-marijuana charge. Trial was set for 10 a.m. Jan. 7.

Lively made news in March 2003 when the car he was driving crashed in Mill Creek Park, killing three of his teen-age friends.

In October, members of the Street Crimes Unit approached a car after finding it blocking the sidewalk near Lively's home. Police said they smelled the strong odor of burnt marijuana coming from the vehicle and saw the driver, later identified as Lively, holding a still-burning marijuana cigarette in his left hand.

A search of the vehicle turned up a plastic bag of suspected marijuana and three smaller bags of the suspected drug inside a brown bag on the driver's side floor, police said.

On Nov. 19, 2004, Lively, after being found guilty of vehicular homicide in the deaths of three teenage friends in Mill Creek Park, was placed on five years’ probation to Municipal Judge Robert P. Milich. The probation expires Nov. 19, 2009.

The drug charge could jeopardize his probation.

Lively, who was 18 and a senior at Cardinal Mooney High School at the time of the traffic accident, also was sentenced to 90 days in jail on each count to run concurrent but was able to serve the time in electronically monitored house arrest. He was granted work and school privileges. The sentence included 100 hours community service to be spent speaking to high school students about driving safely.

On March 27, 2004, Lively rammed head-on into boulders that line Axe Factory Run bridge at 11:40 p.m. Killed in the crash were Anthony C. Childs, 18, of East Dewey Avenue and Isiah M. Thomas, 16, of St. Louis Avenue, both Mooney students, and Amanda M. Ferraro, 16, of New Road, Austintown, a student at Fitch High School.