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Boardman woman sentenced to four years and nine months for her role in fatal crash
By Justin Wier
YOUNGSTOWN
“If we don’t get a handle on [the opioid epidemic], society will be broken down,” Stephen Whiteley said. “Everybody’s a victim.”
Whiteley addressed Judge John M. Durkin of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court on Monday at the sentencing of a woman who caused his granddaughter’s death.
Nicole Mitchell, 32, of Boardman, pleaded guilty Monday to involuntary manslaughter for her role in a fatal crash after a brief police chase in January. Prosecutors dropped six other charges in exchange for the plea.
Whiteley’s granddaughter, Taylor Duvall, was in Mitchell’s passenger seat. She was 23 when she died in the crash.
The night of the crash, police received a call from the Walgreens at Market Street and U.S. Route 224. Duvall had taken diapers and other items from the store. When officers attempted to pull them over, Mitchell fled.
Police abandoned the chase because of poor road conditions.
Later, the car hit a pole, went up an embankment and rolled, prosecutors said.
Officers found Duvall dead in the passenger seat. Mitchell was hiding under a sandbox at a nearby home.
Mitchell received a sentence of four years and nine months in prison. She will be eligible for judicial release after three years. Upon release, she will serve five years’ probation and her driver’s license will be suspended for five years.
Both Mitchell and Duvall were addicted to heroin at the time of the crash.
“[Duvall] might have been in your drug court, if not for the events of that night,” assistant prosecutor Marybeth DiGravio told the judge.
Duvall had a daughter who is 5. Whiteley should have been a doting great-grandfather. Instead, he’s helping to raise her.
“The natural order is torn,” he said. “It’s shredded. It’s like a piece of paper. There’s no recovering.”
Tammy Kaufman, Duvall’s mother, told the court that her daughter was a good person. She had a drug problem, but she didn’t deserve to lose her life.
“Now there’s a little girl who has to grow up without her mother,” Kaufman said.
Whiteley said that even Mitchell is a victim of the opioid epidemic.
Shortly after the accident, DiGravio said the Whiteleys told her they hoped Mitchell would get the treatment their granddaughter never received. She will be eligible for substance-abuse counseling if she obtains judicial release.
“I tried. I tried. I tried [to get her off drugs],” Whiteley said of his grandaughter. “I really tried, and it didn’t work.”
Defense attorney Gerald Ingram, who represented Mitchell, said grandparents shouldn’t have to bury their grandchildren, but it’s happening increasingly often as a result of the growing opioid crisis.
“We’ve had far too many of these cases where we’ve lost someone as a result of addiction,” Judge Durkin said.
Mitchell cried as she addressed the judge.
“I caused everyone a lot of pain and suffering,” she said. “I wish I could take it back. I wish it was me that was gone.”