A Deerfield Township teen has lost her driver’s license for 16 years after a single-vehicle crash that killed a 16-year-old boy in April in Palmyra Township.
The woman, who now is 18 but who was 17 at the time of the crash, was sentenced Nov. 17 in Portage County Juvenile Court to up to six months in juvenile detention, said Portage County Prosecutor Connie Lewandowski. The teen’s driver’s license also was suspended for 16 years, which corresponds to the boy’s age.
She also will serve a one year of probation following her release, along with 50 hours of community service. She was ordered to continue counseling and pay court costs within one year.
The sentence followed a guilty plea to charges of third-degree felony aggravated vehicular homicide and fourth-degree felony vehicular assault.
According to an Ohio State Highway Patrol crash report, the woman was driving a 2024 Chevrolet Camaro eastbound on Scotts Corners Road when the car went off the right side of the road on April 11. It then struck a guardrail, ditch, utility pole and a tree and overturned, landing on its roof about 50 feet from the road about 10 p.m.
Back-seat passenger Brock Anthony Jones, 16, of Youngstown was pronounced dead at the scene. The driver and two other passengers, a Lake Milton man, 18, and a Kent girl, 17, were taken to area hospitals with minor injuries, mostly cuts and bruises.
The female passenger, who was sitting in the back seat with the boy, said she saw on the speedometer that the car was traveling at about 115 mph right before the crash.
The surviving male passenger, who was in front, said the woman sped up after passing another vehicle, and, as the car was going over a hill before the crash, said he noticed the vehicle was traveling about 150 mph.
In a statement included with the report, the woman acknowledged she was speeding.
“I turned down Scotts Corners Road, I know I was speeding, I don’t know how fast I was going,” she said. “I remember trying to brake and avoid crashing, but then everything went black …”
She said that when she woke up, the male passenger was calling 911 and trying to get out of the car while the girl behind him was “crying over Brock.”
The report said blood tests did not find any evidence of alcohol or drugs in the woman’s system.
Reporter Jeff Saunders can be reached at jsaunders@recordpub.com.
This article originally appeared on Record-Courier: Portage teen loses license after Palmyra crash that killed boy, 16
Reporting by Jeff Saunders, Ravenna Record-Courier / Record-Courier
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