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Woman pleads in '12 traffic death
By Joe Gorman
YOUNGSTOWN
A 49-year-old Struthers woman pleaded guilty Monday in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court to drunken driving during a May 2012 fatal accident.
Jill Bissett pleaded guilty before Judge James C. Evans to counts of aggravated vehicular homicide, a second-degree felony, and driving under the influence of alcohol, a first-degree misdemeanor.
Judge Evans set sentencing for 1:30 p.m. July 14. She remains free on bond until she is sentenced.
Her trial was set to begin Monday. It was to have been a bench trial before the judge.
Bissett, who at times had to wipe away tears as she made her plea, admitted to drunken driving during a May 4, 2012, accident in which a motorcyclist, 20-year-old Tammy Miller of Youngstown, was killed.
The accident happened on state Route 289 just east of Sixth Street in Poland Township. 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.
The maximum sentence for the felony charge is eight years in prison, and prison time is mandatory, said Assistant Prosecutor Jennifer McLaughlin. She said as part of the plea, prosecutors will stand silent when Bissett is sentenced.
The maximum sentence for the DUI is six months, and that would run concurrent with the felony, Judge Evans explained to Bissett as he took her plea.
Court records show only a seat-belt violation in county court in Canfield in 2003 on Bissett’s record.