Woman gets five years after guilty plea

August 13, 2013 at 12:03a.m.

YOUNGSTOWN

A woman accused of trying to run down another woman and two city police officers last summer will spend five years in prison. Charlotte Moreland, 42, entered guilty pleas in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court on Monday to a second-degree felony count of felonious assault and to two first- degree felony assault charges and was sentenced immediately by Judge Maureen Sweeney.

Moreland was found competent last month to stand trial on the charges, and her pleas averted jury selection, which was set to begin for her case Monday.

Reports said Moreland tried to run the woman down and crashed into her car on purpose after they got into a fight at a nearby club July 22, 2012.

Reports said the woman was still in the car and her door was open and was bent back when Moreland’s car hit it.

Officers Jerry Fulmer and Mohammad Awad responded, and they and the woman had to dive out of the way of Moreland’s car, reports said. The officers had to order Moreland and a passenger out of the car at gunpoint, reports said.

Her attorney, Walter Richtie, told Sweeney that his client has some mental-health and substance-abuse issues and she also was very drunk that morning. He also said that two of her children had died. In April 2007, her 3-year-old daughter, Cherish, died after a drive-by shooting in Youngstown. Also, one of her sons, Raymond R’Amel Emmanuel Hayes, 17, was killed in November 2011 in the city.

Assistant Prosecutor Rob Andrews told Judge Sweeney that he spoke to both officers about the plea deal and the recommended sentence, and they were both fine with it. They were not in court. The woman whom Moreland was accused of fighting with was in court but chose not to speak.

Moreland tearfully said she was sorry.

“I apologize for this,” Moreland said. “I didn’t try to hurt nobody, and I’m glad nobody got hurt. I jumped in that car and I was just trying to get away.”

Moreland mouthed, “I love you” to several tearful family members who were in court as she was led away by deputy sheriffs.