43
Malvasi II set for trial in fatal crash case
YOUNGSTOWN
A 28-year-old Canfield man accused of failing to inform authorities after a November 2017 fatal crash is set for trial in September.
Michael G. Malvasi II, of Timber Run Drive, faces two felony counts of aggravated vehicular homicide, along with other felony counts of possession of and trafficking in hashish, operating a vehicle while intoxicated, failure to stop after an accident and tampering with evidence.
He appeared Friday morning before Judge Maureen Sweeney of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court for a pretrial hearing, and the court set a Sept. 23 jury trial date.
An Ohio State Highway Patrol investigation found Malvasi failed to negotiate a turn along Shields Road in Canfield and crashed, causing the death of 23-year-old Ryan Lanzo, police said.
Investigators allege Malvasi didn’t call 911 after the crash and instead transported Lanzo to an urgent-care facility in Austintown with help from his father, Michael, 56.
The investigation found Malvasi II was driving with a high concentration of marijuana in his blood.
A county grand jury indicted Malvasi II on the drug charges in February, and on the charges related to the crash in June.
The elder Malvasi has not been indicted in connection to the tampering charge. He was sentenced in January in federal court to five months in prison for possessing an unregistered machine gun, court records show.
He was ordered to self-report on or before April 1 but was arrested in February by Austintown police after allegedly shoplifting about $120 in women’s skin-care products from the Giant Eagle on Mahoning Avenue.
Malvasi II remains free after posting 10 percent of his combined $35,000 bond from both cases. He is set for another pretrial hearing Sept. 18 in Judge Sweeney’s court.