YOUNGSTOWN — Laird F. Bruner, 42, of Clifton Drive in Boardman, was indicted Thursday on aggravated vehicular homicide and failure to stop after a crash in the Sept. 29 death of Joseph Novacich, 53, as Novacich was walking along Loveland Road in Youngstown.

Bruner, who has been free on $200,000 bond since Oct. 16, could get several years in prison on each of the third-degree felonies in his indictment if convicted.

Bruner was arrested Oct. 2 by the U.S. Marshals Violent Fugitive Task Force on a warrant through Youngstown Municipal Court and the Youngstown Police Department on aggravated vehicular homicide, leaving the scene of an accident and misdemeanor operation in willful, wanton disregard of the safety of persons or property.

Video of the crash and interviews of witnesses by The Vindicator indicated that Novacich was walking north along the right side of Loveland Road near Pointview Avenue and Elmo’s Tire when a vehicle heading southeast on Powers Way traveled through the three-way intersection at Loveland, Buckeye Circle and Powers Way, and moved into the left lane to pass a car in front of him.

The road curves to the right, and the driver was passing toward oncoming traffic when he encountered Novacich, who apparently saw the car coming straight at him. He turned to his right and tried to move quickly into the devil strip beside the road when he was struck.

A witness who saw the collision and aftermath close up called what he saw “horrible. It really was. It was like a movie.” He was one of two people who were only about 30 feet away from Novacich when the collision occurred. “It was traumatizing,” the witness said.

Novacich flew upward toward the windshield and into the air as the car continued south through a second front yard, then through a metal fence between that house and the next house. Novacich and the car came to rest in front of the third house. The vehicle stopped when it hit a trailer parked in the front yard. The driver backed his car and re-entered Loveland Road, one of the witnesses said.

The intersection has signs indicating the speed limit in the intersection is 25 mph. It turns into a 35 mph area south of the intersection, but one witness said the driver was going 40 mph or 45 mph when he struck Novacich.

One of the close-up witnesses said there is certainly a problem with the intersection because there are two sets of tire marks in the front yard where Novacich was struck — one from the previous Saturday night and the one from about 10:20 a.m. Sept. 29, when Novacich was killed.

The marks from the previous Saturday night tore up the grass and dirt, and continued into the front yard. A parallel set of tire marks and markings placed by Youngstown police investigators can be seen next to them in the Novacich fatality.

In both cases, after the car entered the same devil strip near the road, they proceeded south and crashed into and over the same metal fence two houses over from where Novacich was struck.

MURDER

Meanwhile, Devyonna L. Taylor, 22, of Tyrell Avenue, was indicted Thursday on murder with a gun specification, felonious assault with a gun specification and misdemeanor domestic violence in the early Sept. 6 shooting death of her 22-year-old live-in girlfriend, Ahlycia Brown, at their apartment.

Taylor, who is in the Mahoning County jail in lieu of $1 million bond, was found holding the victim when police arrived in the 2600 block of Tyrell Avenue for the 1:35 a.m. call. Brown had been shot in the chest.