Columbus driver sent to prison for rear-ending SUV, causing fatal 4-vehicle crash

Jordan Laird, Columbus Dispatch
·2 min read
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Guy A. Andonian, 77, formerly of Columbus and now of North Carolina, is accused in an indictment of stealing more than $35,000 from VFW Post 4044 on Eakin Road between 2017 and 2019 through a check scheme.

A Columbus man was sentenced to three years in prison Monday for causing a four-vehicle, chain-reaction crash in 2019 along Route 315 on the city's Northwest Side that killed a Delaware woman.

Cody J. Troilo, 32, of Columbus' Northwest Side, pleaded guilty Monday to aggravated vehicular homicide in Franklin County Common Pleas Court in connection with the death of Martha Manee, 65, of Delaware. Judge Dan Hawkins immediately sentenced Troilo and suspended his driver's license for life.

Troilo has a record of bad driving, according to Franklin County Municipal Court records, and he was driving with a suspended license on the day of the crash, Sept. 17, 2019.

Troilo was driving a pickup truck south on Route 315 when he rear-ended Manee's Honda Element SUV from behind near West North Broadway, according to city police. The impact pushed Manee's vehicle into the rear of a Cadillac SRX driven by Clyde Cole Jr., 63, of Toledo. Cole's crossover SUV then crashed into a fourth vehicle driven by Jermaine Burge, 42, of Chagrin Falls, Ohio, police said.

Manee was critically injured and taken to OhioHealth Riverside Methodist Hospital, where she died the next day, Sept. 18, 2019.

Troilo and two child passengers in his vehicle sustained minor injuries. Trolio was taken to OhioHealth Grant Medical Center and his two children were treated at Nationwide Children's Hospital, and all were later released.

Cole and two other adults in the vehicle Manee’s Honda Element SUV struck were also treated for minor injuries and Riverside Methodist Hospital, according to police.

Manee, known to her family and friends as "Marty," had bachelor's and master's degrees in education from Ohio State University and had worked as an elementary school teacher for 14 years. She later worked for the Delaware County District Library, where she could continue to spend her time around children, according to her obituary.

Steve Palmer, Troilo’s defense attorney, told The Dispatch that Troilo is taking responsibility by pleading guilty.

“This was a tragedy of the highest order all around,” Palmer said.

More court news: Columbus man identified through CrimeStoppers sentenced to prison for 2019 fatal stabbing

jlaird@dispatch.com

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This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Columbus man sentenced for fatal crash, license suspended for life