An Alliance man has been indicted and arrested more than six months after a hit-and-run crash that killed a 63-year-old man in February.
Jeremiah Matthew Schindewolf, 39, was indicted by a Stark County grand jury on six charges stemming from the Feb. 20 crash that killed Tim B. Mathes.
Schindewolf was booked into the Stark County Jail on Thursday, Sept. 3, according to jail records.
The indictment charges Schindewolf with two counts of aggravated vehicular homicide, including a second-degree felony count alleging he caused Mathes’ death while committing an OVI offense and a third-degree felony count alleging he caused the death recklessly.
He is also charged with failure to stop after an accident, a third-degree felony; improperly handling firearms in a motor vehicle, a fifth-degree felony; and two first-degree misdemeanor counts of operating a vehicle under the influence.
According to the indictment, Schindewolf was operating a Dodge Ram 1500 when the fatal crash occurred. Prosecutors allege he left the scene despite knowing he had been involved in a collision that resulted in a death.
The indictment also alleges Schindewolf knowingly had a loaded handgun in the vehicle while under the influence of alcohol or drugs.
One of the OVI counts alleges Schindewolf had a blood-alcohol concentration of at least 0.17%, while the other alleges he was under the influence of alcohol, a drug of abuse or a combination of the two. The indictment also notes Schindewolf was previously convicted of OVI in Alliance Municipal Court in 2019.
The crash happened shortly after 11 p.m. Feb. 20 on Union Avenue in Alliance. Mathes was driving a Toyota Corolla when it was struck by a Dodge, according to the initial crash investigation. The impact pushed Mathes’ vehicle off the roadway and into a yard. The other vehicle left the scene.
Mathes was taken to Aultman Alliance Community Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 11:32 p.m. He was 63.
At the time of the crash, Alliance police characterized the incident as a hit-skip and continued investigating. No charges had been filed as of Feb. 23.
The case has been assigned to Stark County Common Pleas Judge Taryn L. Heath Haupt.
An indictment is a formal accusation and is not a finding of guilt. Schindewolf is presumed innocent unless proven guilty in court.
