On November 16th, Maria Espinoza pled guilty in federal court in Alexandria to Virginia DUI charges and involuntary manslaughter after an October 2009 car wreck that killed twenty-two-year-old Ashley Roberta and injured US national soccer team player Charlie Davies, preventing him from playing in the World Cup. Twenty-three-year-old Espinoza of Clarksville, Maryland was said to have a blood alcohol content of 0.13 when she crashed into a bridge abutment on the George Washington Parkway in Virginia so violently that the vehicle was torn in two.

Prosecutors in the case said that Espinoza, who was treated for minor injuries following the fatal accident, was speeding, driving while intoxicated and distracted by a GPS device she was attempting to operate when the crash occurred at around 2 a.m. on October 13th. According to the U.S. Attorney's Office, Espinoza was driving on the George Washington Parkway in northern Virginia at about 2 a.m. when the SUV went off the road at a high rate of speed, killing Roberta and injuring Davies. Davies was in DC preparing for a World Cup qualifier when he met the women at a bar that evening, and they offered him a drive back to his hotel. He suffered several broken bones in his right leg, elbow and face, as well as a lacerated bladder. Davies required several months of rehabilitation and surgery following the accident.

Roberta's mother Jan spoke to press about her reaction the night her daughter was killed. She said:

"It's devastated our family... Maria Espinoza got out with maybe a scratch, but that was it, and my daughter lost her life."

"When I heard about the accident, I remember just screaming and screaming for hours, and I remember just calling my doctor and saying, 'Please meet me at GBMC. Take my heart, take my vital organs -- anything to keep my daughter alive."

The maximum sentence Espinoza could receive under sentencing guidelines is eight years for involuntary manslaughter and five years for the DUI charge. She is set to be sentenced on February 18th, 2011.

This article is presented by Price Benowitz LLP, serving Virginia, Maryland and Washington DC. For more information, please visit our Maryland DUI Attorneys and DC DWI Lawyer websites.

Forty-five year old Christopher D. Dockiewicz was ordered to serve a maximum sentence this week by Judge Hanson for an accident that killed two travelers, a married couple visiting from England. Dockiewicz admitted driving drunk and pled guilty to aggravated involuntary manslaughter and DUI back in August. He was sentenced to a total of fifteen years for both charges in a plea agreement arranged between Commonwealth Attorneys and Dockiewicz's Virginia DUI lawyer.

The accident occurred on the afternoon of January 19th as Anthony and Mary Jean Tonking were leaving the park. Their car was struck by Dockiewicz who was reportedly driving in excess of 77 to 100 miles per hour in his BMW. The vehicles collided head-on. Mary Jean died at the scene and her husband died later, after being transported to the hospital. The couple had been in the United States visiting their daughter and grandchildren. They were scheduled to return home soon. According to friends and family, the couple often spent winters in Virginia with family.

Police reports state that Dockiewicz lost control as he rounded a curve at his high rate of speed. It was then that he crossed the center line and collided with the couple. He had previously been seen passing other vehicles and speeding according to witnesses. He told police he was en route to get his son from school at the time of the accident. Police reported Dockiewicz blood alcohol level was between .13 and .16 at the time of the crash. The legal limit in Virginia is .08. A forensic expert was reportedly ready to testify regarding Mr. Dockiewicz's blood alcohol content had the case gone to trial.

Judge Hanson said this was the most horrendous drunk driving case he had seen in more than 25 years and hoped that the long sentence would serve as a deterrent to others who consider drunk driving. Typically involuntary manslaughter carries a maximum sentence of 10 years.

This article is presented by Price Benowitz LLP, representing clients in Washington DC, Maryland and Virginia. For more information, please visit our Maryland DWI Lawyer and DC DWI Lawyer websites.

A young man from Hopewell has been charged under a rarely used law after police say he recognized and attacked a convicted sex offender whose image was published on Virginia's sex offender registry. Nineteen-year-old Daniel Narron is said to have recognized the victim, who police have not named, in a Hopewell convenience store just prior to the attack.

According to police, Narron was with three companions when he entered store on the evening of October 16th. He approached the victim and began harassing him inside the store. Narron is then said to have followed the victim out of the shop. The victim fled the scene on a moped, and Narron pursued him, eventually striking the victim with his 2000 Lincoln Navigator.

Virginia state police confirmed that Narron has been charged with hit-and-run, attempted aggravated malicious wounding by a mob, attempted murder and misuse of the sex offender registry following his November 5th arrest. Sgt. Thomas Molnar of the Virginia State Police told press that Narron and the victim had had no prior relationship nor interactions, and that Narron likely only recogized the victim from the state sex offender registry.

According to Molnar, the incident involving Narron was only the fourth time an individual has been charged with misuse of Virginia's sex offender registry. The registry is to be used as a "safety tool for communities," and Molnar commented on Narron's actions, saying:

"The public web site is out there for the public to use for informational purposes," Molnar said. "But Narron went above and beyond that. He took the information that he received from the web site and harassed this guy based on him being a sex offender."
It is not known whether Narron has been assigned or retained a Virginia criminal lawyer to face the charges against him. He was arraigned the morning of November 7th after spending the weekend in jail.

This article is presented by Price Benowitz LLP, serving Virginia, Maryland and Washington DC. For more information, please visit our Virginia DUI Lawyer and Maryland Criminal Attorney websites.

A woman from Dale City has been sentenced to jail time after being found guilty of fatally neglecting her nine-month-old daughter. According to her Prince William criminal lawyer, twenty-two-year-old Julia Sumo pled guilty to misdemeanor child neglect in September.

Sumo was convicted for the 2009 drowning death of her daughter Gilliah Quansah. The incident occurred on October 10th of last year, when the defendant was bathing the little girl at her Dale City home. Sumo told law enforcement officials that she left her daughter standing in the bathtub because she thought she smelled something burning in the kitchen where her roommate was cooking. She entered the adjacent room, returning in "a few minutes." Upon her return, baby Gilliah was submerged in the tub, laying face up.

Sumo instructed her roommate to call 911, and the roommate then unsuccessfully performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) on the child. The girl never regained consciousness, and was transported to Inova Fairfax hospital, where she was pronounced dead. Sumo's husband Ishmael Quansah, with whom she has a three-week-old daughter, spoke in court of the impact of Gilliah's death:

"Many days and many nights we grieved over this grave mistake," Quansah said. "But at the same time, we are moving forward."

Quansah told the court that he and Sumo are working on "becoming better parents" to the baby born to them last month. He testified that his wife was "beside herself with grief," and that the child's death was a mistake. Sumo told the court she was "very, very sorry" for the death of her daughter.

Sumo's Virginia criminal lawyer asked that no jail time be ordered in the case, but prosecutors requested the 60-day term. Prince William Circuit Court Judge William D. Hamblen concurred, saying that acknowledgement should be "given to the fact that a life was lost." Sumo was also sentenced to serve two years of probation, and ordered to attend parenting classes and undergo a mental health evaluation.

This article is presented by Price Benowitz LLP, serving Virginia, Maryland and Washington DC. For more information, please visit our Maryland Criminal Attorney and Washington DC Criminal Lawyer websites.

A former Osbourn High School teacher has been sentenced after he was convicted of crimes of a sexual nature against a sixteen-year-old Manassas boy. The sentencing of 50-year-old Kevin Ricks has been described as a "formality," and the former English teacher has been linked to three decades of accusations of sexual abuse. Both local and federal law enforcement officials are planning to charge Ricks with numerous additional crimes dating back to at least 1979.

Ricks was sentenced on October 28th to serve a year in Prince William County jail. At the end of his prison term, Ricks is expected to be handed over into federal custody while charges are prepared in further cases. He has been charged in federal court in Alexandria on counts relating to child pornography, and also faces sexual abuse charges in North Carolina. Ricks, a longtime teacher and host of international exchange students, has been linked by FBI agents to incidents of sexual abuse of boys in several states including Virginia and Maryland, as well as crimes in Japan.

Prince William County Circuit Court Judge William D. Hamblen, who said that sentencing guidelines did not "adequately take into account the breach of trust" involved in Ricks' case, sentenced him to five years of prison with all but one suspended. Ricks, who was observed shaking his head while conferring with his Virginia sex crimes lawyer, told Judge Hamblen in court that he had been "completely mischaracterized" by both law enforcement officials and the media, and denied the accusations against him.

"I am not a pedophile and I never have been," Ricks told the court. "I am not a predator and I never have been. I have never stalked anyone."

As state and federal prosecutors compile a case based partly on Ricks' own journals describing alleged incidents of abuse, his distraught mother commented on the current and pending charges against her son:

"I thought I had the perfect family, but all that changed with one phone call," Jean Ricks said, crying. "I didn't know what heartbreak was until this. . . . Kevin obviously needs help, but he also did good things in his life."

Law enforcement officials have said that they believe the convictions could land Ricks in prison for decades.

This article is presented by The Law Office of Price Benowitz, LLP, serving Virginia, Maryland and Washington DC. For more information, please visit our Maryland Criminal Attorney and DC Criminal Lawyer websites.