Judge hears motion to suppress evidence

Staff report

YOUNGSTOWN

Judge James C. Evans of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court heard testimony Thursday in a suppression hearing involving a 2012 fatal accident.

Atty. James Lanzo, representing 48-year-old Jill Bissett of Struthers, is asking the judge to suppress blood evidence in her case.

Bissett is accused of aggravated vehicular homicide and driving under the influence in a May 4, 2012, accident on state Route 289 just east of Sixth Street in Poland Township which killed a motorcyclist, 20-year-old Tammy Miller of Youngstown.

Two troopers from the Ohio State Highway Patrol Canfield Post and an employee of St. Elizabeth Health Center testified at the hearing.

Troopers said Bissett was westbound on Route 289 in a 2002 Ford Taurus when she traveled left of center and struck Miller’s motorcycle, which was eastbound. Miller died later at St. Elizabeth Health Center, and Bissett was treated there for minor injuries.

It was also where her blood was drawn for accident investigators to determine her blood-alcohol content.