The man who killed Robert Maraj, father of Nicki Minaj, during a hit-and-run accident in February 2021, was sentenced to one year in jail on Wednesday.
Polevich was facing seven years in jail but received a lenient sentence after pleading guilty to two felony charges. According to TMZ, Polevich’s charges were leaving the scene of an incident without reporting and tampering with physical evidence, but he won’t be spending a lot of time behind bars.
Judge Howard Sturim also ordered that 71-year-old Polevich’s driver’s license be suspended for six months, and he’ll pay a $5,000 fine.
At his court hearing in May, Polevich admitted to hitting 64-year-old Maraj and driving away, failing to report the accident or help the elderly man after he was struck. He also admitted that he went to great lengths to hide the car used in the accident, a Volvo, under a tarp in a garage at his house. The vehicle was later tracked down by police officers from surveillance footage.
At that hearing, the widow of the deceased and mother of superstar Nicki Minaj, Carol Maraj, bashed the court for the light sentence given to Polevich, who is said to be a business magnate in the community and owns a drilling company in Guam.
“I’m not happy with that … one year in jail. I’m not happy with that,” Maraj after the hearing.
“I was angry, very, very angry. I started to shake because it brought back all the memories of that night when I was sitting in the hospital,” Maraj had said.
Nicki Minaj also recently opened up about her father’s death on her website, noting, “I can say it has been the most devastating loss of my life.”
