Man seeks release in ’08 fatality

February 5, 2011 at 12:00a.m.

Driver got 3 years last May in death of pedestrian, 22

YOUNGSTOWN

A Canfield man sentenced to three years in prison after dragging another man beneath a car and causing the victim’s death may be getting out of prison after nine months.

A judicial-release hearing for Bryce D. Burke, 28, of Mercedes Place, will be at 1:30 p.m. Friday before Judge James C. Evans of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court, who imposed the original sentence last May 12.

Burke, who is at the Southeastern Correctional Institution in Lancaster, filed a motion for judicial release Dec. 3 through his lawyer, J. Gerald Ingram.

Mark L. Hockensmith, an assistant county prosecutor, filed a response saying he would fulfill the plea agreement by not opposing Burke’s release, provided Burke hasn’t violated any prison regulations.

Judge Evans imposed the prison time, a $1,000 fine and a three-year driver’s license suspension after Burke pleaded guilty to failure to stop after an accident resulting in death.

Burke hit the victim, Andrew Culp, 22, of Columbiana, who was a pedestrian on Midlothian Boulevard just west of Zedaker Street on Nov. 29, 2008, and dragged him under the car he was driving, police said.

During Burke’s sentencing hearing, Ingram said Culp was partly at fault because Culp was reportedly lying in the road when Burke hit him.

Burke was in the McDonald’s drive-through at South Avenue and Midlothian Boulevard when another motorist told him there was a body under the car he was driving, police said.

A witness called 911 to report a body under the car in front of him, but, by the time police arrived, the car had left.

Culp was found on the road about two blocks from McDonald’s, and Burke surrendered to detectives a few days later.

In Burke’s motion for judicial release, Ingram wrote that Burke “has always shown genuine remorse,” has been a model prisoner and has been “a devoted father” of two young children.

Burke has no prior felony convictions and has never before been incarcerated. If he’s released, he’ll be on probation for three years.