Boardman woman sentenced for fatal accident following police chase

Nicole Mitchell appeared in court to answer charges

A Boardman woman has been convicted of less serious charges after a police chase and crash that claimed the life of a passenger in her car.

Nicole Mitchell, 32, appeared in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court on Monday where she pleaded guilty to Involuntary manslaughter, failure to comply with the order of a police officer, and driving under the influence.

As part of a plea bargain, the judge dismissed six other counts that included charges of aggravated vehicular homicide, reckless homicide, and theft.

Mitchell was immediately sentenced to four years and nine months in prison.

Investigators say Mitchell was driving a car that crashed into a pole on Zedaker Street in January, killing her passenger 23-year-old Taylor Duvall.

Boardman police began pursuing the car after Duvall was seen shoplifting makeup and diapers at a Walgreen's.

Police say they ended the pursuit on South Avenue before the crash occurred.

Steve Whiteley, Duvall's grandfather, spoke out in court.

"No doubt your honor she was on drugs. I tried, I tried, I tried. I really really tried." he said.

He hopes now that Mitchell learned a lesson but said that their lives will never be the same and they are now helping raise Duvall's child.

"It's torn, it's torn. It's shredded like a piece of paper. There's no recoveries when he says recover, recover what."

He said that his wife was in the hospital twice for "broken heart syndrome."

The defendant Nicole Mitchell said in court "I apologize to her family. I know that there's nothing that I can say to make it right. I have a family also that I would like to apologize to because I've caused everybody a lot of pain and suffering and I wish I could take it back and I wish it was me that was gone and not her."

Whiteley said that the family is now investigating the possibility of filing a lawsuit against police, questioning the decision to chase the car during what they contend were slippery road conditions on a wintry day with snow. The family plans to have out of town experts look at the case. Police have said that they stopped the chase before the crash.