Man pleads guilty to aggravated vehicular homicide for fatal crash

Staff report

YOUNGSTOWN

A Youngstown man involved in a January 2016 crash that left a man dead pleaded guilty Friday in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court.

Eric Wallace, 28, of Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, pleaded guilty to aggravated vehicular homicide and operating a vehicle while intoxicated.

Prosecutors dropped a second count of aggravated vehicular homicide in exchange for the plea.

Relying on video evidence from store security cameras, investigators said Wallace may have been driving more than 80 mph on Market Street – 45 mph over the posted speed limit of 35 mph – when he struck a car carrying Jerome Campbell-Atkins, 40, who died as a result of the collision.

Wallace had alcohol and cocaine in his system, investigators said.

Wallace faces up to 81/2 years in prison and $16,000 in fines.

Prosecutors will recommend a three-year mandatory prison sentence with credit for time served in the Mahoning County jail, three years’ parole and a driver’s license suspension.

Judge John M. Durkin will sentence Wallace at 1:30 p.m. Dec. 7.