A jury on Thursday night, September 15, found a man from Hagerstown not guilty of negligent homicide following the death of his stepdaughter in a fatal car crash.
The accident happened on August 18, 2014 on US 522. Walter L. Weaver, aged 35, of Salem Avenue was driving his 9 year old stepdaughter, Maryah Marie McGill-Keatts to choir practice in Morgan County when he tried to pass a Jeep which was stopped in the northbound lane waiting to turn left onto Brosious West Lane. His Toyota sedan then hit an oncoming Chevrolet Malibu driven by Sonia Andrews of Berkeley Springs.
It appears that Weaver’s stepson who was in the rear seat had asked him a question and he was distracted and when he realized the jeep was stopped, swerved to avoid hitting it and then hit the other vehicle head on.
McGill-Keatts was killed in the crash and Andrews was critically injured but survived. Weaver was also injured in the crash.
The prosecution alleged he was using his cell phone just prior to the crash but the jury found him not guilty of homicide, which would have lead to a prison term of three to 15 years, but he was found guilty of three traffic citations, including passing in a no passing zone, left of center and failure to use a hands-free mobile device.
If you or a loved one has been in an accident, please call the Cumberland car accident attorneys of Dolina Hobbs, LLC, at (301) 739-1013 or contact us online today. Today’s technology has created more distractions, but it has also given us more tools to prove that a driver was distracted when they caused an accident.
