According to reports, the driver who killed Nicki Minaj’s father has been given a one-year prison sentence.
In accordance with a promise the judge made when the man pleaded guilty in May, the driver of a hit-and-run accident that killed the father of musician Nicki Minaj last year was given a year in prison on Wednesday.
Charles Polevich was sentenced to a $5,000 fine and a six-month suspension of his driver’s license after accepting a guilty plea to leaving the scene of the accident that killed Robert Maraj on Long Island in New York and tampering with evidence.
Marc Gann, Polevich’s attorney, speculated that his client might have been experiencing a medical problem at the time of the accident and may not have been completely aware of what had happened when he fled.
Polevich, 72, said in court that he’s “been heartsick since realizing the extent of the tragedy” and that there was “no excuse” for his behavior.
Carol Maraj, Maraj’s widow, testified in court that Polevich had abandoned her husband. “like a dog on the street” and that sparing him a longer jail sentence was a “slap in the face for the family,” Newsday reported.
Maraj, 64, was hit by Polevich in February 2021 while he was walking along Roslyn Road in Mineola. Polevich momentarily stopped to ask Maraj if he was OK but didn’t call for assistance, according to the prosecutors.
Instead, according to the prosecution, Polevich returned home, placed the 1992 Volvo station vehicle in his garage, and covered it with a tarp. Maraj was transferred to a hospital where the next day he was pronounced dead.
Carol Maraj, the widow of Maraj, is suing Polevich for the tragedy.
A few days after the accident, Polevich who owns a drilling and water purifying firm out of Guam and Long Island turned himself in to authorities.
According to detectives, they followed the Volvo involved in the incident to Polevich’s Mineola house using security footage.
Minaj, 39, referred to the passing of her father as the most devastating loss of her life in a blog posted on her website.
