Nicki Minaj’s mother Carol Maraj looked somber leaving a Long Island courtroom where a hit-and-run driver pleaded guilty to a crash that killed her husband — Nicki’s father.
The 62-year-old was seen exiting the courtroom in Nassau Country on Long Island on Friday while bundled up in a thick gray down coat.
Businessman Charles Polevich, 71, admitted leaving the scene of the February 2021 accident that fatally injured Robert Maraj, 64, as he walked along a road in Mineola.
Polevich initially got out of his car and looked at the injured man on the ground, but then drove off, didn’t call 911, garaged his car and covered it with tarp, authorities said. The driver pleaded guilty to tampering with evidence by concealing the car with tarp.
Robert Maraj died at a hospital a day after the crash.
Judge Howard Sturim said Polevich would get ‘no more than one year in jail’, along with community service and a suspended license. He is due to be sentenced on August 3.
Maraj said she was ‘not happy’ with the planned sentence. The widow, who is suing Polevich, said seeing him in court left her shaking at the memory of her husband fighting for his life at the hospital.
Difficult day: Nicki Minaj’s mother Carol Maraj, 62, was seen on Friday as she left a court on Long Island, New York, where Charles Polevich, 71, pleaded guilty to killing her husband Robert Maraj in a hit-and-run in 2021
Carol was seen leaving the New York court while wearing an open crimson jacket underneath her heavier coat, along with matching red pants.
She had on a black top as well with a fan-shaped cutout over her chest.
Maraj wore her shoulder-length raven hair styled in delicate waves, and she covered up with a black mask.
Somber: Carol looked reserved in a gray down coat, a red blazer with matching pants and a black top with a fan-shaped cutout over her chest
Light sentence? The same day, she expressed her anger at the judge saying he would likely sentence Polevich to a year or less jail time after he pleaded guilty
Carol also brought along a black handbag, and she was seen on her phone as she stepped out of the court and got into an SUV outside on the rainy day.
The singer’s mother attended the hearing where Polevich confessed to hitting her husband Robert as he walked along the side of a road in Mineola on Long Island in February 2021.
He admitted in court to getting out to check on Maraj after hitting him with his car, but he then drove away and did not call 911 to report the accident or get help.
In addition to pleading guilty to leaving the scene of a fatal accident, Polevich entered a guilty plea to tampering with physical evidence, as he parked it in a garage and covered it with a tarp to hide it after the crash.
In exchange for his guilty plea on Friday, Judge Howard Sturim told Polevich that he would receive ‘no more than one year in jail’ for the crime, though he would also be required to do community service after being released, and his driver’s license would be suspended.
Confessed: Polevich (pictured) admitted leaving the scene of the February 2021 accident that fatally injured Robert Maraj as he walked along a road in Mineola. He later parked his car in a garage and covered it with a tarp
Family: Maraj told reporters she was ‘not happy’ with the planned sentence. The widow, who is suing Polevich for $150million, said seeing him in court left her shaking at the memory of her husband fighting for his life in the hospital; Carol and Robert seen in 2013
Although the admission of guilt from Polevich may have offered some closure to the Maraj family, Carol told reporters outside the hearing that she was ‘not happy’ with her husband’s killer serving a year at most.
‘I was angry, very, very angry,’ she said of seeing him in court. ‘I’ll say what I have to say at sentencing.’
The sentence was also a disappointment for prosecutors, who had been pushing for one to three years of prison time.
‘Given the severity of the defendant’s conduct, we disagree with the sentencing commitment from the court,’ said Nassau County District Attorney’s office spokesperson Brendan Brosh via a statement.
Marc Gann, Polevich’s attorney, said that his client felt ‘tremendous empathy for Mr. Maraj’s family’ and that he had ‘tremendous remorse’ for the crime.
‘He does feel tremendous empathy for Mr. Maraj’s family and tremendous remorse for any role he played in his death,’ Gann said by phone after court. He suggested that Polevich might have had a medical problem that made him not ‘fully aware of what he was doing,’ while noting that it wasn’t a legal justification.
Polevich’s sentencing hearing has been scheduled for August 3.
Messages were sent to representatives for Nicki Minaj, who called her father’s death ‘the most devastating loss of my life’ in a post on her website last year.
The platinum-selling, Grammy-nominated rapper — known for tracks including ‘Anaconda,’ ‘Starships’ and ‘Super Bass’ — was born Onika Tanya Maraj.
In interviews years ago, she described a troubled relationship with her father. But she later said he had changed.
After his death, she wrote about wishing she could pick up the phone and talk to him.
‘He was very loved & will be very missed,’ she wrote.
It wasn’t clear if Nicki, who put on a show-stopping all-black look at the Met Gala in Manhattan days earlier, attended the hearing for her father’s killer.
MIA? It wasn’t clear if Nicki, who put on a show-stopping all-black look at the Met Gala in Manhattan days earlier, attended the hearing for her father’s killer; seen May 2
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