Teen driver to serve 15 days for death

STAFF REPORT

YOUNGSTOWN — The 18-year-old Willis Avenue woman involved in a crash in which a pedestrian died in April has been sentenced to 15 days in jail.

Brandy Robinson, convicted of reckless operation and failure to control, was sentenced Monday in municipal court by Judge Elizabeth A. Kobly.

The sentence includes fines totaling $350, one year’s intensive probation, which means she reports to her probation officer frequently, and a requirement that she lecture at 10 victim-impact meetings. The probation department is in the process of determining where she would speak, since such meetings aren’t readily available, said Lauren Westlake, chief probation officer.

In September, charges of vehicular homicide and two child restraint violations were dismissed, and charges of reckless operation and failure to control were filed and a plea agreement reached. Punishment for vehicular homicide is six months in jail. The restraint charges applied to a 2-year-old boy and 4-year-old girl in Robinson’s car. No other injuries were reported.

City Prosecutor Jay Macejko said it was clear that Robinson was primarily responsible for the death of Helen Mrosko, 39.

“We encountered some difficulties with the investigation and also became concerned over some of the instructions that the jury would receive. Given the role that the other driver actually played or, at least, what the defense would claim she played, the case became a very close call,” Macejko said. “I determined that a plea to two counts of reckless operation was just about as good as we could hope for and so I authorized the agreement.”

Robinson’s attorney, J. Gerald Ingram, said there was substantial likelihood that the state would have lost had the case gone to trial. He said there were four witnesses saying his client at fault and an equal number of witnesses saying the other driver involved was at fault.

Ingram said the Mrosko family was present through every step of negotiations and did not object to the plea agreement. He said he thinks it was a fair and equitable resolution.

Macejko said dueling witnesses were definitely a concern and there were other specific defects in the accident diagrams that played a role.

This case would be very clean in a prosecutorial sense if Robinson had, for example, lost control after going through a stop sign and killed a pedestrian (a one-car accident). The facts, though, are that of a two-car accident, the prosecutor said.

“Even though I continue to believe that Robinson is primarily responsible for the death of Helen Mrosko, we would have great difficulty here [convicting] because two cars were involved,” Macejko said.

At the time of the crash, Detective Sgt. Patricia Garcar, an accident investigator, said Robinson was traveling east on East Philadelphia Avenue and failed to stop for the stop sign at South Avenue. The 2003 Pontiac Grand Am driven by Robinson then struck a 2001 Dodge Neon traveling north on South Avenue before pinning Mrosko against East Side Civics building at 2929 South Ave., the investigator said.

Mrosko, of East Boston Avenue, died after being pinned against the bar/restaurant.

The Dodge was driven by Yaschica Shipman, 29, of West Boulevard, Boardman. Neither driver applied brakes, Garcar said in April.

Mrosko, who worked at Belleria Pizza in Cornersburg, had just gotten off the bus on South Avenue and was walking on the sidewalk toward a tavern to meet her boyfriend when the accident took place, Garcar said.

Mahoning County Coroner David M. Kennedy ruled the death an accident.

Sandy Teski said she worked with Mrosko 14 years at Belleria and still expects to see her friend come through the door.

“Helen loved to walk. She was so happy to get out in the sunshine,” Teski said Tuesday. “When my kids came and told me [Mrosko was dead] I thought I was having a nightmare.”

Teski said she agrees with Mrosko’s sister, who was in court for the sentencing, that justice wasn’t served.