Ran over woman who was walking to church
\nBy SCOTT DAUGHERTY, Staff Writer<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
"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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
"There was a traffic and criminal record, plus a nightmarish set of facts," he said.
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\nAccording 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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Norwood told police he did not remember hitting Collins, only "clipping a curb."<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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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\nFamily members went on to complain that the state’s courts had been too lenient with Norwood in the past.<\/p>\n
"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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