Man gets 7 years in fatal hit-and-run
Ran over woman who was walking to church
By SCOTT DAUGHERTY, Staff Writer
A Linthicum man was sentenced yesterday to seven years in prison on charges he ran over and killed a Glen Burnie woman as she walked to church last summer.
The sentence meted out to 27-year-old Matthew Evan Norwood ranks among the longest for an auto manslaughter case in county history, according to prosecutors.
Although most auto manslaughter sentences top out at 18 months so the defendant can serve the time in the county jail, Circuit Court Judge William C. Mulford II imposed a sentence long enough to ensure that Norwood serves at least five years behind bars.
"You had it all in this one," Deputy State's Attorney William Roessler said, noting how Norwood's record included four criminal convictions and six traffic convictions - including one for driving while intoxicated.
He also said 59-year-old Mary Bernice Collins worked with a greyhound rescue group and was killed while standing on a sidewalk across the street from her church.
"There was a traffic and criminal record, plus a nightmarish set of facts," he said.
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According to prosecutors, Norwood was driving a minivan north on Baltimore-Annapolis Boulevard about 6:50 p.m. when he jumped a curb near the intersection of Oak Lane. The van hit Collins as she stood on the sidewalk and continued without stopping.
The impact knocked Collins about 100 feet down the road into the front yard of a nearby home, Roessler said. She was on her way to attend Mass at Holy Trinity Catholic Church.
While paramedics were attending to Collins, county police found Norwood at a Royal Farms convenience store about two blocks away standing outside his minivan and looking at a flat tire.
Norwood told police he did not remember hitting Collins, only "clipping a curb."
But Norwood was not drunk at the time of the crash - only tired. A blood test found no alcohol, only two prescription drugs: the antidepressant Xanax and a narcotic analgesic, methadone.
It is unclear if he had a prescription for the drugs, but Murtha said his client knew they would make him tired and that he shouldn't have been driving.
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Family members went on to complain that the state's courts had been too lenient with Norwood in the past.
"This lack of punishment has enabled him to take the life of our beloved family member, Mary, and later my beloved brother Donald," James Smith Jr., one of Collins' brother-in-laws, wrote in a letter to the court.
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