Charges filed in January crash

By Joe Gorman | July 22, 2016 at 12:02a.m.

YOUNGSTOWN

Police say a man charged Thursday with causing a fatal crash in January was driving more than 80 miles per hour down Market Street when the accident happened.

Eric Wallace, 28, no address listed, was charged in municipal court Thursday with aggravated vehicular homicide and operating a vehicle impaired in the Jan. 12 crash that killed Jerome Campbell Atkins, 40.

Atkins was one of three people in a car that was turning left about 12:05 a.m. from West LaClede Avenue to Market Street on the South Side when it collided with a car driven by Wallace that was traveling north on Market.

Officer Brian Booksing of the department’s Accident Investigation Unit said Wallace was driving a car more than 80 mph, more than double the posted speed limit of 35 mph on that stretch of Market.

Booksing said he used information stored in the car Wallace was driving as well as video from surrounding businesses to confirm the speed.

He said the reason it took so long to file the charges is because it took a long time to get the video confirmation of the speed.

Wallace is not yet in custody; however, he was sentenced June 15 to 10 days in the Mahoning County jail after a probation violation in a 2015 criminal-trespass case in municipal court.

Municipal court records show just one traffic case for Wallace, a citation for driving too slow issued in 2003.

Booksing said Wallace also was under the influence of alcohol and cocaine at the time of the crash.

Atkins was a front-seat passenger in the car when he was killed.