Cartwright headed to prison for four years

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By Carol McIntire

CCM Editor

An East Canton man will spend the next four years in prison for aggravated vehicular assault in connection with a July car-motorcycle accident in Carroll County.

Carroll County Common Pleas Court Judge Michael V. Repella, II, sentenced Andrew Cartwright, 28, to the prison term Nov. 14 after Cartwright accepted a plea deal. In exchange for the prosecution agreeing to nolle (agreed not to prosecute) a fourth-degree charge of Vehicular Assault one count of Driving Under the Influence of Alcohol or Drugs, Cartwright agreed to plead guilty to a third degree charge of Aggravated Vehicular Assault, Failure to Stop After an Accident and Driving Under the Influence of Alcohol or Drugs.

He was sentenced to 48 months in prison on the Aggravated Vehicular Assault charge, ordered to pay a $1,000 fine and pay costs. He also received a four-year drivers’ license suspension.

He was sentenced to 12 months on the Failure to Stop After an Accident charge and 180 days in the county jail, ordered to pay a $500 fine and costs on the DUI charge. The sentences run concurrent for an aggregate sentence of 48 months. He was given credit for 27 days of jail time served.

Following his release from prison, his driver’s license will be suspended for one year.

Cartwright was indicted Aug. 7, by a grand jury, following the July 21 accident on Bacon Rd.

According to Carrollton County Prosecuting Attorney Steven D. Barnett, in a release issued following the grand jury session, a vehicle operated by Cartwright struck a motorcycle on Bacon Road in Harrison Township that caused the motorcycle to crash, seriously injuring the driver, 51year-old Gregory Sivets of Carrollton. Cartwright allegedly left the scene of the crash and was later apprehended in a driveway off Avalon Road, where deputies suspected him of being under the influence of drugs.

Sivets was transported from the accident scene to a Canton hospital where he remained for several days for treatment of multiple injuries.

Following the accident, a Sivets’ family member told The Messenger Gregory was on his way to church that Sunday morning in July, riding his motorcycle with a helmet on and was wearing boots. He was just minutes from the church when the accident occurred.