Adrienne D. Washington Jr., center, talks Tuesday with one of his attorneys, Michael Kivlighan, after Washington entered guilty pleas in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court for a 2021 crash that killed Darius Shackleford, a former Youngstown State University football player. At right is attorney Gerald Ingram. Staff photo / Ed Runyan

YOUNGSTOWN — Adrienne D. Washington Jr., 20, accepted responsibility Tuesday for a crash that killed former Youngstown State University football player Darius Shackleford on Feb. 6, 2021, on the East Side by pleading guilty to causing Shackleford’s death.

Washington pleaded guilty before Judge Anthony Donofrio of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court to involuntary manslaughter and failure to comply with the orders of a police officer, and will be sentenced May 19.

Washington also accepted responsibility Tuesday for a similar incident on Sept. 11 by pleading guilty to failure to comply with the order of a police officer and aggravated drug possession. In that incident he also fled from police, but no one was hurt. He pleaded guilty to another count of failure to comply with the orders of a police officer in that case and one count of aggravated drug possession.

Prosecutors are recommending Washington get eight to 10 1/2 years in prison for the two incidents.

DEADLY CRASH

Shackleford was killed when a Youngstown police officer observed Washington running a red light at Oak Street and Himrod Avenue at 11:54 p.m. The officer was going the opposite direction as Washington. He turned around and activated his lights and siren.

Washington fled at high speed and crashed into Shackleford’s car as it traveled into the intersection of McGuffey Road and Oak Street.

During a news conference at the police department shortly after the crash, Mayor Jamael Tito Brown said Shackleford was “one semester away from graduation,” doing the “things we tell our children: Go get an education, the life, the world is yours to have. And it was taken in an instant.”

YSU held a celebration of Shackleford’s life at Stambaugh Stadium several days later. The 24-year-old Newark native was part of the YSU football program from 2015 to 2020, playing wide receiver.

At the celebration, former teammate Nathan Mays spoke about Shackleford’s impact on his life.

“Shack’s the kind of guy everybody knows could put a smile on anyone’s face at any time of the day. Everyone’s gonna remember him as a loving, fun guy,” Mays said. “I’ve heard over the years, that in order to feel and experience tremendous gratitude and joy, you have to know how much you could lose in an instant. Although I’m at a worst time in my life right now and I’d do anything to get him back, I would experience this 10 times over to keep the memories I have of Shack.”

SECOND EPISODE

In the second instance of Washington fleeing, the same Youngstown officer and a trooper with the Ohio State Highway Parol were riding together as part of an initiative that brought personnel from the state patrol, Ohio Bureau of Criminal Identification, the Adult Parole Authority, U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and Ohio Investigative Unit into the city to address a fall 2021 increase in gun violence and criminal activity.

At 1:41 p.m., officers observed a Ford Escape driven by Washington on East Lucius Avenue failing to activate a turn signal while turning onto Rush Boulevard, a report states.

The trooper activated the car’s lights and siren and turned around to make a traffic stop, but Washington accelerated, then failed to stop at an intersection and nearly struck another vehicle. Washington then pulled into a driveway on Palmer Avenue. Washington got out and ran through back yards in the 500 block of Palmer, police said.

The officers chased after Washington, who hopped a fence and later ran to the front porch of a home at 605 Roxbury Ave., where another Youngstown officer ordered Washington to the ground and he was apprehended.

Police later found five plastic baggies of marijuana and a container containing burnt lumps of marijuana, a baggie containing two white pills later identified as Oxycodone and a digital scale.