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Vehicular homicide brings six-months’ incarceration; five-year driver’s license suspension.
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Brady
YOUNGSTOWN
A man who was convicted by a jury last week of vehicular homicide in the death of a local social worker has been sentenced to six months of incarceration, concurrent with a five-year prison term he’s now serving for an unrelated aggravated robbery with a firearm specification.
Judge Maureen A. Sweeney of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court imposed the sentence Monday on Eric Brady, 26, of East Avondale Avenue. She also suspended his driver’s license for five years — the longest suspension the law allows for this offense, “recognizing that the court cannot overlook [the fact that] someone lost their life because of an accident.”
On Friday, at the end of a four-day trial, the jury convicted Brady of vehicular homicide in the death of Kim Sullivan, 42, of Austintown.
Sullivan died Jan. 18, 2009, immediately after a 7 a.m. accident in the 100 block of South Meridian Road.
She was a judicial advocate for the Sojourner House domestic-violence shelter.
“A part of my life went with her,” the victim’s mother, Bennie Sullivan, told the judge. “We will continue to keep her legacy and the things that she did for this community alive for her.”
“Kimberly Sullivan touched a lot of people and changed a lot of people’s lives,” said Robert Andrews, an assistant county prosecutor.
After just over four hours of deliberations, the jury acquitted Brady of failing to stop after an accident and of aggravated vehicular homicide, both third-degree felonies, but convicted him of the lesser included first-degree misdemeanor offense of vehicular homicide.
Conviction on an aggravated vehicular-homicide charge requires a finding of recklessness, but conviction on a vehicular-homicide charge requires a finding of negligence.
The crash occurred after Brady crossed lanes and the cars collided at an angle.
Andrews said Brady exceeded the posted 35 mph speed limit on a snow-covered road just before dawn, walked away from the crash site and hid from police.
Brady was found lying in the snow behind a building near the accident scene.
His lawyer, Mark Lavelle, said his client wasn’t speeding and wandered off after the crash because he was confused and disoriented.
“I’m not a speeder. I’m not a drinker. I don’t do drugs,” said Brady, who apologized for his actions and added that he struggled to regain competency after suffering a head injury.
The defendant was hospitalized after the accident and is said to have suffered extensive memory loss.
Lavelle said Brady was treated for a concussion resulting from the crash and has no recollection of the crash. Lavelle added that it’s not clear whether Brady suffered brain damage from a crash-related injury.
The delay in trying the vehicular homicide case resulted from mental- competency evaluations performed on Brady, Brady’s having to be restored to competency to stand trial and a change of defense lawyers, Lavelle said.
Brady is scheduled to be released from the Marion Correctional Institution on Jan. 9, 2014.