The driver who killed Nicki Minaj’s father Robert Maraj in a hit-and-run crash will spend months in jail.
According to multiple reports, a judge sentenced Charles Polevich to one year in jail on Wednesday (August 3). The 72-year-old man also must pay a $5,000 fine and had his driver’s license suspended for six months.
Polevich pleaded guilty to leaving the scene of an accident without reporting it and tampering with physical evidence in May. He hit Nicki Minaj’s father while Maraj was walking in Mineola, New York in February 2021.
Prosecutors said Polevich exited his vehicle, looked at Maraj on the ground, then drove away from the scene. He returned to his home and put a tarp over his car in the garage.
Nicki Minaj’s father was pronounced dead a day after the incident. He was 64.
Earlier this year, a judge declared Polevich wouldn’t be sentenced to more than a year in jail. Nicki Minaj’s mother Carol Maraj and prosecutors wanted a harsher punishment.
“Given the severity of the defendant’s conduct, the NCDA advocated for a sentence of 1 to 3 years,” Nassau County District Attorney’s Office spokesperson Brendan Brosh. “The court did not impose our recommended sentence and the defendant was sentenced to 1 year in jail. We continue to express our condolences to the family of Robert Maraj.”
Nicki Minaj called her father’s death “the most devastating loss” of her life. She hasn’t publicly commented on Polevich’s sentencing.