Woman pleads guilty in homicide


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Kimberly Mack

By Peter H. Milliken

milliken@vindy.com

YOUNGSTOWN

A Woodford Avenue woman has pleaded guilty to aggravated vehicular homicide in a July 27 incident in which she ran over and killed her boyfriend with his car.

A tearful Kimberly Mack, 46, entered her plea Monday before Judge James C. Evans of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court, who will sentence her Feb. 24.

Mack was charged in the death of James Jackson, 64, who suffered his fatal injuries in his West Evergreen Avenue driveway.

Mack faces two to eight years in prison, followed by three years of mandatory parole and lifetime driver’s license revocation.

Mack’s lawyer, Walter Ritchie, asked Judge Evans to release her on house arrest pending sentencing so she could spend time with her two children and attend to her medical problems.

But Mark Hockensmith, an assistant county prosecutor, objected, noting that Mack faces mandatory prison time and has several theft convictions on her record.

Judge Evans declined Ritchie’s request, saying Mack’s medical problems can be treated and her family can visit her in the county jail, where she is being held in lieu of $100,000 bond.

When Jackson was run over, Mack was driving under license suspension and had a blood-alcohol level of 0.205, more than 21/2 times the legal limit of 0.08.

Mack told police she and Jackson had been drinking throughout the day and that she found Jackson lying in the driveway after he asked her to come to his house.

Police noted that Mack possessed the keys to Jackson’s car and admitted driving it, and they noted a list of signs that Jackson had been run over by the car.