Driver gets 33 days for pot-related crash that killed Howland woman

By ED RUNYAN

runyan@vindy.com

Photo

Mark Donaldson

CORTLAND

Emotion-filled words flowed Monday in Central District Court from the two daughters and sister of Marye Urey, a Howland woman killed in a head-on May 8, 2017, crash in Bazetta Township.

The women read statements to Mark J. Donaldson, 20, of Farmdale, before Judge Thomas Campbell sentenced Donaldson to 33 days in the Trumbull County jail. Donaldson pleaded guilty to vehicular manslaughter, OVI and marijuana possession.

The impact of the crash trapped Marye Urey, 59, who was driving, and daughter Melissa Urey, because the passenger doors were jammed shut by the side of a ditch. Their minivan was driven into the ditch by the collision.

“You broke both of her legs,” Melissa told Donaldson. She also was injured. “What hurts me the most is there was nothing I could do to take her pain away or stop the bleeding.”

As they waited to be removed from the vehicle, Marye yelled for help, Melissa said.

“All I could do was hold her hand and let her know that I am here and just talk to her,” Melissa said. Eventually, Marye closed her eyes for the last time. She died later at the hospital after firefighters used a mechanical tool to extracate her.

With Donaldson standing not far away, Melissa said, “I wish there was a way you could feel all the heartache and pain that I do right now.”

Donaldson’s offenses were all misdemeanors. A Trumbull County grand jury refused to indict him on a felony charge that could have produced a prison sentence.

Prosecutors say one reason there was no felony conviction is that Donaldson, who attended the Trumbull Career and Technical Center, has a condition that causes him to lose consciousness.

Donaldson told troopers with the Ohio State Highway Patrol that he did not remember crossing the center line or the crash, but he admitted that he smoked marijuana the night before to help him sleep.

Inside his car, troopers found two bags of marijuana and a marijuana grinder on the floor. Judge Campbell dismissed the charge related to the grinder, but Donaldson pleaded guilty the OVI related to the marijuana.

Marye Urey’s sister, Patty Urey, said her and her nieces’ statements were intended to “share with [Donaldson] how your choices, our decisions and your actions have impacted our family.”

She added, “We wish you could feel how we all felt while waiting in that hospital room despirately hoping and praying and then being given the devastating news that doctors could not save our sister.”

Judge Campbell told Donaldson to face him while talking, even though Donaldson said he wanted to apologize to Marye’s family. “So many things I wish I could change so you could have Marye here today,” Donaldson said. “I’m just so sorry.”

Judge Campbell ordered that Donaldson begin serving his jail sentence starting Dec. 14. He suspended Donaldson’s license for two years, with about seven more months left of that suspension. The judge said he would refer the matter to the Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles to determine whether Donaldson’s driver’s license should be suspended longer for medical reasons.

After the hearing, Donaldson’s mother, Sheri Sprague, said her son was diagnosed with the condition that causes him to black out when he was 14, but he had not experienced a blackout in the 2 1/2 years before the crash.

Sprague said she doesn’t feel the marijuana caused her son to be impaired, but he was convicted of OVI because of the marijuana use. She said she thinks that should be a lesson to others who think marijuana use isn’t dangerous.