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Liberty Township man charged in hit-skip death of Warren man
By Ed Runyan
WARREN
Daniel J. Waggoner Jr., 29, of James Lane in Liberty Township, was booked into the Trumbull County Jail early Thursday on charges connected to the traffic fatality of a man on Youngstown Road last weekend.
Waggoner was charged in Warren Municipal Court with two felony charges – tampering with evidence and failure to stop after an accident – and a misdemeanor charge of falsification.
No date appears in court records for his arraignment hearing.
He’s accused of being the driver who hit pedestrian Paul A. Rose, 61, of Hazelwood Avenue Southeast on U.S. Route 422 near Rogers Avenue at 9:40 p.m. Saturday, the Ohio State Highway Patrol said. Rose later died at St. Elizabeth Youngstown Hospital.
Troopers announced this week they had a person of interest in the case after a police officer noticed a car in Liberty that matched the description given of the one involved in the Rose fatality.
Neighbors said Rose regularly pushed a shopping cart or walker so he could collect cans along Youngstown Road. He walked slowly, causing some to believe it was likely he would get hit by a car, neighbors said.
Waggoner also has several other pending charges in municipal court, including drunken driving, failing to drive in marked lanes, felony drug possession, misdemeanor drug possession and misdemeanor drug-paraphernalia possession – all filed July 11 by the patrol. He was arraigned on those charges earlier.
A woman, Michelle A. Smith, 27, of the James Lane address, also has been charged with misdemeanor falsification in the case, the patrol said. She is due for arraignment next Friday in Warren Municipal Court.
According to Vindicator files, Waggoner and Smith also were arrested July 10 by Liberty police when they responded to the James Lane address for a possible fight.
Smith, who also had a Middletown, Ohio, address, is charged with unauthorized use of a motor vehicle and obstructing official business. Waggoner is charged with obstructing official business.
Police discovered Smith had taken a 2003 Chevrolet from Butler County, Ohio, without permission. Both of them also interfered with officers’ ability to conduct an investigation regarding the car, a report said.