LISBON — A Columbiana man is appealing a judgment from the Columbiana County Common Pleas Court, following a sentencing on Nov. 7, for aggravated vehicular assault and OVI.

Christopher Mele, 65, Lucretia Lane, received a 30-month prison sentence and a 60-day county jail term to run concurrently. Judge Megan Bickerton also ordered restitution of $6,697 and a 10-year license suspension. Mele’s appeal was filed on Nov. 26 in the Seventh District Court of Appeals.

Mele was accused of being impaired during a crash which seriously injured a woman in 2023.

Earlier this fall, he entered pleas of no contest and stipulated to being found guilty of third-degree felony aggravated vehicular assault, fourth-degree felony vehicular assault and misdemeanor operating a vehicle under the influence of alcohol, a drug of abuse or a combination of them. Another OVI charge was dismissed.

For sentencing, the two vehicular assault charges merged, with the state electing to have Mele sentenced for the third-degree felony charge, for a mandatory term of 30 months or two and a half years in prison. He was sentenced to 60 days in the county jail and fined $565 for the OVI, but the jail term was ordered served at the same time as the prison term.

The indictment alleged that Mele on Aug. 12, 2023, while operating a 2022 Buick Envision, caused serious physical harm to Samantha Harris as a proximate result of committing an OVI. According to Columbiana County Common Pleas Court records, Harris was a passenger in a vehicle driven by Matthew Murphy when Mele’s eastbound vehicle on state Route 14 crossed the center lane and struck Murphy’s westbound vehicle.

Mele’s attempt to have blood toxicology evidence thrown out failed earlier this year, with his motion to suppress denied. He had requested probation at sentencing.

(Staff writer Mary Ann Greier contributed to this story)