Woman begins sentence for hitting boy with car

Staff report

WARREN

A 23-year-old Pershing Street Southwest woman was taken to the Trumbull County jail Wednesday to begin serving a 10-day jail term for hitting a 12-year-old boy with her car and leaving the scene.

Nicole M. Dowell pleaded guilty earlier to felony counts of vehicular assault and leaving the scene for hitting Camorin H. McGhee of Fifth Street Southwest on Jan. 7 as Camorin was entering a crosswalk on Tod Avenue Southwest after school.

Judge W. Wyatt McKay of Trumbull County Common Pleas Court also placed Dowell on five years’ probation, suspended her driver’s license for one year and ordered her to participate in a victim-reconciliation program.

Police said Dowell was traveling south on Tod near Warren’s Jefferson K-8 building when she hit Camorin. Witnesses said she got out of her car, looked at Camorin on the road, then got back in her car and drove off.

Dowell was located a short time later by a Warren patrolman after a witness followed Dowell into Lordstown and told police where to find her.

The accident caused an injury to Camorin’s spleen, which had to be surgically removed.

Camorin’s mother, Carrie McGhee, filed a civil suit against Dowell in common-pleas court in June, seeking damages of at least $25,000 for injuries to his head, neck, back and other parts of Camorin’s body, the suit said.