Man pleads guilty in car crash that killed Nicki Minaj’s father

NEW YORK — A hit-and-run driver pleaded responsible Friday in a suburban New York crash that killed the father of Nicki Minaj and was promised a yr or a lot less in jail, disappointing prosecutors and the hip hop star’s mom.

In state court docket in Long Island’s Nassau County, businessman Charles Polevich admitted leaving the scene of the February 2021 accident that fatally injured Robert Maraj as he walked together a street in Mineola.

Polevich originally obtained out of his auto and looked at the wounded man on the floor, but then drove off, didn’t call 911, garaged his auto and protected it with a tarp, authorities said. Polevich pleaded responsible to tampering with evidence by concealing the car.

Maraj, 64, died at a hospital the future day.

Judge Howard Sturim reported Polevich would get “no a lot more than one year in jail,” along with local community provider and a suspended license. The 71-year-old is thanks to be sentenced Aug. 3.

The victim’s widow, Carol Maraj, explained to reporters she was “not happy” with the planned sentence. The widow, who is suing Polevich, said seeing him in court still left her shaking at the memory of her spouse preventing for his life in the clinic.

Prosecutors, who sought a 1-to-a few-yr jail sentence, also took problem with the planned penalty.

“Given the severity of the defendant’s carry out, we disagree with the sentencing commitment from the courtroom,” Nassau County District Attorney’s business office spokesperson Brendan Brosh reported in a statement.

Polevich’s lawyer, Marc Gann, called the strike-and-run “completely out of character” for his shopper, who hails from Extensive Island but has a drilling and water purification enterprise in Guam.

“He does feel tremendous empathy for Mr. Maraj’s spouse and children and remarkable regret for any position he performed in his loss of life,” Gann explained by cell phone just after courtroom. He instructed that Polevich may well have experienced a health-related challenge that manufactured him not “fully informed of what he was doing,” although noting that it was not a legal justification.

Messages have been sent to reps for Nicki Minaj, who termed her father’s death “the most devastating loss of my existence” in a write-up on her internet site previous yr.

The platinum-providing, Grammy-nominated rapper — acknowledged for tracks which includes “Anaconda,” “Starships” and “Super Bass” — was born Onika Tanya Maraj.

In interviews yrs in the past, she explained a troubled connection with her father. But she afterwards stated he had changed.

Immediately after his dying, she wrote about wishing she could choose up the cellular phone and chat to him.

“He was really loved & will be quite skipped,” she wrote.