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Trumbull woman gets five years in vehicular homicide
By Ed Runyan
WARREN
Brandy L. Schneider of Geauga Portage Easterly Road in Mecca Township was driving drunk on Center of the World South Road on June 25, 2010, when she hit 19-year-old pedestrian Luke Macaluso from behind.
The impact of the 1 a.m. crash tossed the University of Akron freshman from Leavittsburg 20 feet, killing him.
A witness said Schneider stopped momentarily but then continued south, leaving Macaluso beside the road with his girlfriend, who was walking beside him.
The next morning, Schneider, 30, took her damaged car to a local body shop in an effort to obscure evidence of the crash, said Mike Burnett, an assistant Trumbull County prosecutor.
On Friday, Schneider pleaded guilty in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court to aggravated vehicular homicide, failure to stop after an accident and tampering with evidence.
Judge W. Wyatt McKay sentenced Schneider to five years in prison. She can get as much as 10 months of that time eliminated by participating in rehabilitation programs offered in the prison system, the judge said.
Schneider has lost her driver’s license for life and turned it over to Judge McKay before she was led from the courtroom to begin her sentence.
Neither Schneider nor anyone from Macaluso’s family spoke at the sentencing.
The accident happened near a railroad crossing just south of state Route 5 in Braceville Township, about 1 mile east of the Ohio Turnpike.
Macaluso’s girlfriend said she was walking in the grass, and Macaluso was just inside the white line at the edge of the road. She was not injured.
A 2009 LaBrae High School graduate, Macaluso enjoyed weight-lifting and was a lineman on the LaBrae High School football team, earning all-league honors his junior and senior years.