Joomla

Emmit Aldrich of Conneaut admitted his guilt during a plea hearing Monday in front of Ashtabula County Common Pleas Judge Thomas Harris to charges stemming from a fatal hit-skip accident in January on Mill Street.
Aldrich had pleaded no contest to numerous charges, including failure to stop after an accident, a second-degree felony, and vehicular homicide, a first-degree misdemeanor.
Two counts of tampering with evidence, third-degree felonies, were dismissed as part of the plea bargain.
Aldrich was driving north on Mill Street around 9:50 p.m. Jan. 26 when he struck and killed Donna Westerburg, who had just left her home and was crossing Mill Street en route to her job at Mooney’s Bakery.
According to witnesses, Aldrich stopped, moved Westerberg’s body to the side of the road, got back in his SUV, and drove off.
About 36 hours later, Conneaut police received an anonymous tip connecting Aldrich to the incident, and arrested him at his girlfriend’s Whitney Street home. No stranger to local law officials, Aldrich admitted that he had been behind the wheel at the time of the accident.  The vehicle, with front-end damage, was found parked in the garage.
The Ashtabula County Probation Department will prepare a pre-sentencing report on Aldrich, who is scheduled to be sentenced at 1 p.m. May 26. He could face from two to eight years in prison and $15,000 on the failure to stop after an accident charge, and 180 days in jail and a $1,000 fine on the vehicular homicide charge.