OTTAWA — As a Lima woman was sentenced to three years in prison Monday for violating her probation, more details surfaced on her role in a fatal motorcycle crash that killed a man.
Catherine Wilson, 26, told investigators she was a passenger in her car driven by another person when the driver ran into a man on a motorcycle leading to his death, said Assistant Putnam County Prosecutor Todd Schroeder.
Wilson did not make a statement other than to say she admitted to the violation in a burglary case from last year. She violated probation by not keeping her probation officer informed of her address and leaving Ohio for Florida, where local deputies went to retrieve her.
Judge Randall Basinger of Putnam County Common Pleas Court told Wilson she screwed up her chance and now must be punished.
“The court gave you some opportunities including the WORTH Center to turn your life around. You have chosen not to take advantage of those opportunities,” Basinger said.
Wilson has not been charged in the May 31 death of Aaron Ehrnsberger, 27. Ehrnsberger was riding his motorcycle west on Allentown Road near the intersection of Kenilworth Avenue when an eastbound car turned in front of him, police said.
Investigators said they believed Wilson and Robert D. Catlett III, 31 — who may have been connected to the crash — fled to Florida. She is the owner of the car police believe was involved in the crash that killed Ehrnsberger.
Sgt. Paula Strickler of the Lima Police Department said Catlett showed up at the Lima Police Department on July 21 with an attorney to talk to investigators. Catlett was not charged and walked out of the police station a short time later, she said.
The crash remained under investigation and charges could be filed at a later date, Strickler said Monday.
Wilson also has a probation violation pending in Allen County in a 2013 case in which she pleaded guilty to trafficking in heroin, a fifth-degree felony. She faces a prison sentence in that case.
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