Vermilion man accused of drunken driving death

LORAIN — A Vermilion man has pleaded not guilty to charges that he killed a Lorain man while driving drunk and crashing his car in Lorain in June 2023. Nicholas Fenik, 24, of Portside Drive, was arraigned Thursday in Lorain County Common Pleas Court on: • Two counts of aggravated vehicular homicide, both felonies • One count each of DUI, failure to control and operating a vehicle in willful and wanton disregard of the safety of persons or property, all misdemeanors He was indicted by a Lorain County grand jury on Wednesday. Fenik pleaded not guilty to the charges in court the following day, according to court records. The case is assigned to Judge James Miraldi's courtroom. The June 17 crash killed 28-year-old Trent Neal. Lorain police said Fenik crashed his 2005 Dodge Neon SRT while speeding on Kolbe Road in the city just after 10:30 p.m. that night. The car was headed north on Oakcrest Drive and had just passed the intersection of Oakcrest Drive before the crash. It failed to make a curve in the road, went off the right side of the road, hit a culvert, overturned and came to rest in the front yard of a residence in the 4100 block of Kolbe Road, police said in a news release. Neal was flown by helicopter to Metro Health Medical Center in Cleveland, where he died. Fenik was taken to University Hospitals Elyria Medical Center with serious injuries. An investigation revealed Fenik was driving while intoxicated, according to Lorain police. Fenik and Neal had been at a friend's birthday party earlier in the night, Lorain police said. Neal was a 2012 graduate of Amherst Steele High School, worked at Ford's Ohio Assembly Plant in Lorain County and was a member of UAW Local 2000, according to his published obituary. Neal "enjoyed wrenching on anything with a motor, boating, fishing, kayaking and four-wheeling. He was extremely talented and could ride anything with wheels and fix anything that was broken," according to his obituary. Read more news at chroniclet.com.