Staff photo / Ed Runyan Jayce Klink, left, is shown with her attorney, Lou DiFabio, during a hearing in her criminal case in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court earlier this year. Klink is asking to be released early from prison.

YOUNGSTOWN — Jayce Klink, 24, who has served about 40 days of her one-year sentence for causing a wrong-way fatal crash, is asking to be released early. The crash occurred on Interstate 680 near the Glenwood Avenue exit at 9:44 p.m. Dec. 2, 2020.

Her attorney, Lou DiFabio, said Klink qualifies for judicial release, and prosecutors did not state that they opposed early release for Klink, of Poland, at the time of sentencing on April 5. DiFabio’s remarks are contained in a filing in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court.

Marty Hume, assistant county prosecutor, objected to the early release, however, in a memorandum he filed with Judge Anthony Donofrio, who makes the decision.

The crash killed Tiara Whatley, 35, and badly injured her sister, the driver of their car, Sharenda Whatley, 34, both Youngstown.

Klink traveled only a short distance onto I-680 North in the wrong direction before she encountered vehicles coming at her. A witness said he saw Klink swerve to avoid two cars, but hit the third one — the Whatley vehicle. Both cars sustained heavy front-end damage, a Youngstown police report states.

Klink pleaded guilty to aggravated vehicular homicide, a third-degree felony; and aggravated vehicular assault, a fourth-degree felony; and could have gotten up to 4 1/2 years in prison.

‘ADEQUATELY PUNISHED’

DeFabio noted that an offender such as Klink is eligible for early release by the judge, called judicial release, “at any time after the offender is delivered to a state correctional institution.”

Klink “has been adequately punished for her crime” and has no previous criminal record, and she had no new charges during the two years she was free on bond following the crash, DiFabio stated. Klink has a young son and is custodial parent for him. She also has maintained employment “throughout her adult life.”

Hume, meanwhile, states that the judge sentenced Klink to one year in prison “after listening to family members of the decedent and the surviving victim of defendant’s criminal conduct, as well as the arguments of defense counsel and the victim’s statement.”

He added: “Based upon the serious nature of defendant’s conduct in recklessly driving the wrong way on a major highway, causing death and permanent injury to others, the state asks the court to deny defendant’s motion for early release.”

He said Klink’s actions were “not intentional in this case and were simply reckless on a very dark and somewhat confusing portion of Interstate 680.”

Klink entered I-680 heading south in the northbound lanes just west of downtown. She first traveled the wrong way on the one-way Marshall Street, then continued onto the exit ramp.

DeFabio said he has spoken with Klink, who has told him she has “learned her lesson,” and “never wants to be in a position of serving a prison term in the future.”

erunyan@vindy.com