Man gets 7-year term for second vehicular homicide

Staff report

YOUNGSTOWN

A judge sentenced a 31-year-old Poland man to seven years in prison and revoked his driver’s license for life after the defendant pleaded guilty as charged to aggravated vehicular homicide in the death of a 79-year-old woman.

On Friday, Judge John M. Durkin of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court imposed the sentence on Kevin Rolland, of Katahdin Drive, in the May 11, 2011, death of Vera Gabrick of Youngstown.

The elderly woman died in a two-car accident at Midlothian Boulevard and Hudson Avenue on the city’s South Side, where she suffered blunt-force injuries to the abdomen. She was wearing a seat belt.

The indictment states that Rolland had been convicted of a prior traffic- related homicide in May 1997 when he was a juvenile.

That case was handled in the Martin P. Joyce Juvenile Justice Center.

A check with Mahoning County courts shows that Rolland has had multiple driving violations, primarily in Boardman Township, beginning in 2000.