Man involved in fatal crash on November 10 for misdemeanor assault | News, sports, jobs

YOUNGSTOWN – Joshua W. Johnston, 36, who allegedly failed to yield the right of way as he crossed State Route 82 in Vienna on Nov. 10, resulting in a collision that killed one passenger and another seriously injured another was due to be sentenced last week. a separate burglary and other charges.

Johnston’s sentencing has now been postponed until 9 a.m. Dec. 3 before Mahoning County Common Pleas Court Judge R. Scott Krichbaum. Johnston pleaded guilty Sept. 26 to three felonies for an episode at his ex-girlfriend’s Beloit home: burglary, making threats by stalking and obstructing official business, court records show. His plea deal calls for him to serve a year in prison.

A Smith Township police report states that officers were called to a home on Dogwood Drive in Beloit, just east of Sebring, on June 3 at 10:01 p.m. for an active burglary. When a Smith Township police officer arrived, she was told the suspect was in a vehicle attempting to leave the area.

The suspect “could not stop” when a Sebring officer approached him in his cruiser, the report said. The suspect then drove around the Smith Township officer’s cruiser, despite the officer activating an air horn siren and yelling for the suspect to stop, the report said. The driver pulled into a yard and continued onto Sebring Lake Estates, although the two officers were able to arrest the suspect shortly afterwards.

The Smith Township officer grabbed cigarettes and a lighter from the suspect and placed them on the roof of the suspect’s car, but the man then reached into the car and refused to show his hands, the report said. The Smith Township officer pulled the man from the car and the two officers were able to handcuff the man, identified as Johnston, the report said.

The resident of the home told officers that Johnston is her ex-boyfriend. He lived with her until he moved out a week earlier, she said. He removed all his belongings and gave her his key because she owns the property, she said.

Johnston had harassed and stalked her since they broke off their relationship several weeks earlier, she said. He called her phone more than 50 times and she reported the calls to Columbiana police because she was in Columbiana at the time, she said.

On the night of Johnston’s arrest, he came to her house and continued to harass her to talk to him. When she refused, he continued to try to find a way into the house, she said. She called 911. Suddenly she saw Johnston in the house and she didn’t know how he got in. There was also a second woman in the house.

An officer then checked the home and found that a side door had been forced open. Johnston, whose court documents list an address on East South Range Road in North Lima, was taken to the Mahoning County Jail.

In the Nov. 10 crash, Johnston was driving south on Warner Road in Vienna at 8:13 p.m. when he failed to yield the right of way while entering state Route 82, the highway patrol said in a news release. His car was struck on the passenger side by another car traveling eastbound on Route 82, the news release said.

A passenger in Johnston’s car, Miranda Zullo, 35, of Youngstown, was killed and a second passenger, a juvenile, was taken to the hospital with life-threatening injuries, the release said. Johnston suffered non-life-threatening injuries and the driver of the other car suffered minor injuries, according to the State Patrol, which is investigating the crash.

None of the people in Johnston’s car were wearing seat belts. Johnston has an extensive record of seat belt violations in Mahoning County dating from 2009 through 2022, most of which were issued by troopers from the Ohio State Highway Patrol’s Canfield Post, according to court documents.