Judge Sentences Defendant to 18 Months of Home Detention for Vehicular Manslaughter of Cousin

By Andrew Michaels - February 16, 2023
Court | Daily Stories | Homicides | Suspects | Traffic | Victims |

A 34-year-old Baltimore man will serve 18 months on home detention after accepting a plea for vehicular manslaughter in connection to a car crash that killed his cousin.

On Feb. 15, Luvell Booker Jr. and his defense attorney, Rodney Gray, appeared before Baltimore City Circuit Court Judge Dana Middleton to accept the prosecution’s offer of 10 years, suspending all but 18 months, and five years of supervised probation in addition to alcohol and drug treatment. Booker received two days credit that was put toward his sentence.

According to the prosecution, on May 20, 2020, Booker was driving a BMW with his cousin, Gregory Bryant, in the front passenger seat around 8:37 p.m. on the 2500 block of Liberty Heights. A witness told Baltimore Police that Booker tried to pass a truck from the right-hand side and then struck a curb and a tree stump before slamming into the back of a parked vehicle.

Three months later, on Aug. 18, 2020, Bryant died from his injuries sustained in the crash, the prosecutor said.

Police later learned that Booker was speeding and had a blood alcohol content of 0.18.

During the proceedings, the uncle of both Booker and Bryant told Judge Middleton that he and his family supported a lesser sentence for the defendant than what was presented in the plea and wanted “to have this resolved as quickly as possible so we can move on.”

After accepting the plea, Booker apologized in open court to his family who was sitting in the gallery.

“I’m going to have to live with that for the rest of my life,” he said. “A thing like this will never happen ever again.”