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LISBON -- The man resentenced for causing the 2021 death of 13-year-old Aidan Wollman received the same eight to 12 years for failure to stop after an accident that he received the first time around.
Donald E. White, 66, formerly of Salineville, appeared Tuesday in Columbiana County Common Pleas Court before Judge Megan Bickerton after the Seventh District Court of Appeals affirmed his conviction but sent the case back for resentencing on the two charges of failure to stop after an accident.
The appellate court claimed the trial court decided which of the two counts of failure to stop after an accident to use for sentencing last year, when it was up to the state to announce which of the two counts to use, either the second-degree felony or the third-degree felony. For sentencing purposes, the two counts were merged.
During the resentencing, Bickerton noted that they were there only regarding the first two counts, the two failure to stop after an accident charges. She explained that she reviewed the court record and the state did say during the original sentencing to go with count 1, the second-degree felony, which carried the longer sentence.
County Assistant Prosecutor Steve Yacovone indicated the same and said he was relying on all the arguments previously made during the original sentence and stressed that the prosecution wanted the sentencing to proceed on the first count, the second-degree felony.
Bickerton again issued the indefinite term of eight to 12 years, to be served consecutive to the rest of the sentence, which was not part of this hearing. White was accompanied by his trial defense attorney James Wise, who asked whether requirements or definitions associated with an indefinite sentence would be read, which Bickerton did explain to the defendant.
The hearing was also attended by Aidan's parents and family members.
A jury last fall found White guilty of all counts related to the fatal accident, along with a drug charge. White's truck struck the back of Aidan's bicycle on state Route 164, just south of Beeson Mill Road, near Columbiana on Oct. 23, 2021 and White left the scene.
The counts against him included aggravated vehicular homicide, a third-degree felony, two charges of failure to stop after an accident, one a second-degree felony and one a third-degree felony, and possession of cocaine, a fifth-degree felony. The cocaine charge stemmed from him possessing cocaine at his residence the day after the accident.
His sentence included the eight to 12 years on the second-degree felony failure to stop charge, 60 months (five years) on the homicide charge and 12 months (one year) on the cocaine possession. With consecutive terms that's a mandatory 14 years, with the possibility of an additional four years if the parole board chooses, meaning the sentence could stretch to a possible 18 years. White's driver's license was suspended for life.
White was found guilty of causing Aidan's death by driving recklessly, with evidence presented that his truck crossed over the fog line, which is the white line at the edge of the highway. Aidan and a friend were riding on the side of the road.