Man Pleads Guilty to March Vehicular Homicide for Two Year Prison Sentence

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A 70-year-old Baltimore man pleaded guilty to vehicular homicide while driving under the influence on Aug. 29 for the death of a man in West Baltimore earlier this year.

Richard Holmes was offered and accepted a plea of five years, suspending all but two years, and three years of supervised probation on Thursday before Baltimore City Circuit Court Judge Melissa K. Copeland. The defendant is also required to complete drug and alcohol screening and treatment.

Under the terms of the plea, an interlock will also be placed on any vehicle registered to Holmes as well as an alcohol restriction on his license.

During the proceeding, the prosecutor said the victim’s family was dissatisfied with the maximum penalty for the charge, which is currently five years in prison and a $5,000 fine, according to Maryland law. When the judge questioned the prosecution’s lenient offer, the prosector said there was no indication Holmes was speeding at the time of the incident. He also said that the majority of the defendant’s criminal history between 1978 and 2014 was not violent, except for a second-degree assault.

Judge Copeland agreed to move forward with the plea offer.

“I would like to admit that I am totally sorry for what happened,” Holmes said in court. “…I wish and I pray that the family would forgive me because it was totally an accident.”

On March 12, the prosecutor said, Holmes was driving a 2007 Chevy Silverado on Woodbrook Avenue and turned onto West North Avenue around 2 p.m. when he jumped the curb and hit two brick pillars. One of the brick pillars fell on the victim who was standing behind it.

Baltimore Police Department (BPD) officers responded to the scene and found Holmes standing on the driver’s side of the truck and holding his keys. Holmes was taken to Mercy Medical Center, where his blood-alcohol content was measured at 0.17–the legal limit is .08– and showed traces of THC.

On March 19, the victim died from his injuries. The prosecutor said that the defendant learned about the victim’s death about a week later and told his girlfriend over a jail call that the victim was “probably already in bad shape before I hit him.”

Holmes was represented by defense attorneys Patrick Preller and Stephanie Maddox.