Staff photo / Ed Runyan Patrick S. Paris, 58, of Poland, left, pleaded guilty to felony OVI Tuesday in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court for a July 11 crash at the intersection of U.S. Route 224 and Market Street in Boardman for which he tested positive for several substances. At right is his attorney, Ron Yarwood.

YOUNGSTOWN — Patrick S. Paris, 58, of Indian Trail in Poland, pleaded guilty Tuesday to felony OVI for a 5:37 a.m. crash July 11 at the intersection of U.S. Route 224 and Market Street in Boardman for which he tested positive for several substances.

Mahoning County Common Pleas Court Judge R. Scott Krichbaum ordered the Community Corrections Association to carry out a presentence investigation of Paris’ criminal history and background. Paris will be sentenced 9:30 a.m. March 4 and remains free on bond.

Paris pleaded guilty to operating a vehicle under the influence of alcohol, a drug of abuse or a combination of them — OVI — a third-degree felony. He could get up to five years in prison. He also pleaded guilty to a specification that requires him to forfeit the 2013 Mercedes-Benz he was driving.

Krichbaum told Paris that he “normally in this type of a situation” gives a lifetime driver’s license suspension.

Mahoning County Assistant Prosecutor John Juhasz told Krichbaum the vehicle Paris is forfeiting was totaled in the crash.

According to a crash report from the Ohio State Highway Patrol, Paris was traveling north on Market Street and failed to stop for a red light. He struck the right side of a vehicle traveling east on Route 224.

The driver of that vehicle, a 33-year-old Boardman man, suffered a suspected minor injury and was taken to St. Elizabeth Youngstown Hospital, according to the crash report. Paris also suffered a suspected minor injury and was taken to St. Elizabeth Boardman Hospital, the report states.

Paris’ toxicology results indicated he was not tested for alcohol, but his urine sample tested positive for benzodiazepines, cocaine, opiates and “other,” the report states.

Two other charges in Paris’ indictment, which are also OVI-related, are being dismissed. Krichbaum called the two other charges “the same charges stated a different way.”

Paris’ indictment states that Paris was previously convicted of or pleaded guilty to a felony OVI offense in 2017 in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court.

2017 SENTENCING

Paris was sentenced to 18 months in prison in March 2017 after a 2016 arrest on state Route 11 in Vienna. In that case, he pleaded guilty to two counts of operating a vehicle under the influence of alcohol or drugs with a vehicle forfeiture specification.

Then-Trumbull County Common Pleas Court Judge Peter Kontos said probation was not an option because Paris’ presentence investigation report showed at least a dozen convictions dating back to 1992 that dealt with drug and alcohol problems.

“With your dangerous driving record, and if I let you out on the road, people would be in trouble,” Kontos said.

Kontos also ordered Paris to pay a $1,350 fine and the judge suspended Paris’ driver’s license for three years.

The charges stemmed from a traffic stop on Route 11 near the state Route 82 interchange when a motorist reported he was following a Cadillac that was weaving on the road, Assistant Trumbull County Prosecutor Michael A. Burnett said at the time.

Paris admitted to Vienna police he had taken drugs, and toxicology tests showed heroin to be in his system, Burnett said.