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Prosecutor explains complexities of fatal hit and run case and plea agreement
Driver pleaded no contest in death of pedestrian
By Ed Runyan
WARREN
After Judge Peter Kontos of Trumbull County Common Pleas Court sentenced Charles W. Hillyer, 48, to six months in the county jail Monday in the 2014 death of a pedestrian, assistant prosecutor Mike Burnett shed light on the case’s complexities.
Hillyer pleaded no contest earlier to a misdemeanor of leaving the scene of an accident in the death of Tony Wells, 25, of McDonald, which occurred on Austintown-Warren Road near the former RG Steel blast furnace in Warren Township.
Hillyer, of state Route 7 in Burghill, was driving a dump truck south toward the nearby Arcelor Mittal coke plant when he hit Wells at 6:20 a.m. Dec. 4. Wells was walking near the edge of the road, pushing a bicycle. He was walking with traffic. Troopers said pedestrians should walk against traffic. It was dark, and Wells was wearing dark clothing.
A small hook on the side of Hillyer’s truck that secures a tarp on top of the truck hooked Wells by the jacket, spinning him around and leaving a truck-tire imprint on Wells’ back side, Burnett said. The imprint came from the sidewall of the tire.
But Wells also had a bruise on his chest.
Initially, investigators with the Ohio State Highway Patrol and the Trumbull County Coroner’s office agreed that all the bruises came from Hillyer’s truck.
But Wells’ family filed a civil suit against Hillyer and the trucking company he worked for in early 2016, and officials with the highway patrol and coroner’s office were ordered to give deposition testimony in in the civil matter, Burnett said.
It was at that point it became apparent that the findings of the patrol and coroner’s office differed from one another, Burnett said.
It called into question whether another vehicle might have caused the bruising on Wells’ chest and contributed to his death, Burnett said.
The highway patrol said Hillyer admitted to feeling a “bump or bounce in his trailer,” and the driver of a truck behind told Hillyer that he hit someone.
During sentencing, Judge Kontos said such cases are “difficult for the court” because the family of the person who dies in an accidental vehicle crash has suffered a terrible loss, just like the family of someone killed deliberately.
But evidence in this case that two vehicles may have hit Wells “made it extremely difficult to know exactly what happened,” so the judge agreed in August to allow Hillyer to plead no contest to the reduced misdemeanor version of the crime instead of the felony version.
Hillyer has a clean record, but he still felt Hillyer should do some jail time, the judge said.
The judge said he doesn’t know whether Hillyer’s truck hit Wells first or second, but it is “disheartening” that Hillyer did not stop, and “we will never know the answer” as to whether Hillyer stopping could have saved Wells’ life.
Hillyer’s case will be reviewed after 90 days in jail. He will serve two years’ probation, and his driver’s license will be suspended for one year.
Before sentencing, Hillyer told about 10 of Wells’ family members in court how sorry he is for their loss, and said he wishes he would have “went and talked to police.”
Tina Devlin, Wells’ cousin, read a letter in court about Wells, saying he lost his mother at a young age, then in 2012 lost an aunt who was like a mother to him. Wells’ daughter, Aubrielle, was 18 months old when he died, she said.
She said the family is upset that they were told “a couple different stories of how the event happened” and wanted Hillyer to serve the maximum of six months in jail.
Hillyer’s attorney, J. Reid Yoder, said his client was not charged with causing Wells’ death. “He was charged with leaving the scene after a fatality,” Yoder said.
Yoder said Hillyer went to the coke plant to pick up a load and erred when he “made a choice” not to seek out law -enforcement officers who were nearby investigating Wells death to talk to them.
Mary Scott, Wells’ aunt, said Wells was on his way to his job that morning at ITPS of Niles as a pipefitter. He had purchased a car the month before, but it need some work before it would be ready to drive, she said.
“He was a good kid. He would have helped anybody out,” she said. Wells had stayed at a home in Warren the night before he died but lived with her, Scott said.