Former state trooper sentenced in vehicular homicide

Will serve 7 to 10.5 years for Nov. 2023 vehicular homicide

WARREN -- A former Pennsylvania state trooper faced sentencing Tuesday for the vehicular homicide of 23-year-old Tyler Richmond.

The defendant, Joseph Yuran, received a sentence of 7 to 10.5 years by Trumbull County Common Pleas Judge Ronald Rice.

Yuran, 55, had previously pleaded guilty to second-degree aggravated vehicular homicide and a misdemeanor OVI charge in connection to the fatal November 2023 crash on state Route 422 and state Route 305 in Southington.

Sitting in a jury box, Yuran listened to remarks from Richmond's mother, Lisa Richmond, and the victim's long-term girlfriend, Tessa Hanks.

"Our son should still be here with us, not in an urn on our fireplace mantle," Lisa Richmond said to the court. "I will forever replay his last moments in my mind. I hope this haunts you for the rest of your life because for us, we will never get over losing our son."

Hanks, in her statement, questioned how to move forward in her life without Tyler Richmond in it, whom she said she envisioned marrying and beginning a family with one day, saying, "Tyler (Richmond) was my future and all of my forever plans."

Yuran asked to directly face the parents of Tyler Richmond sitting in the court gallery, apologizing to them for the event that claimed their son's life, telling them that no mother should have to bury their child.

Before imposing a sentence, Rice said to Yuran, "How you transitioned from a law-abiding police officer to a drunk driving killer is a very sad statement."

The court found that Yuran was likely to re-offend based on a prior arrest history and lack of treatment for dependence on alcohol.

The crash report from the Ohio State Highway Patrol indicates that Yuran's Dodge Ram pickup, traveling through a stop sign on 305, struck Richmond's Chevrolet Malibu, which was heading south on 422 at around 11 p.m. Yuran's blood-alcohol content was recorded as .196, well above the legal limit of .08.

Body camera footage from the Ohio State Highway Patrol shows Yuran admitting to troopers that he had been drinking that night. Witnesses at the scene indicated that Yuran initiated the crash.

At the time of the incident, Yuran had been on probation for a previous drunk driving offense, and the court said he has additional offenses leveled against him in Pennyslvania stemming from his vehicular homicide case.

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