A Baltimore County judge decided Monday that a Pikesville convenience store owner who fatally struck a 71-year-old pedestrian and fled the scene will not serve any additional jail time, instead sentencing him to three years of probation. Mahmood Chaudhry had already spent eight days in the Baltimore County Detention Center before being released on home detention while his case moved through court.
Chaudhry fatally struck Gerald Pettaway Sr. on Old Court Road near Bedford Avenue in Pikesville on November 11, 2025, according to The Baltimore Banner. Pettaway was crossing in the middle of the road at night when he was hit. Chaudhry then left the scene without stopping, calling 911, or providing first aid, failures that prosecutors argued warranted significant jail time.
Assistant State's Attorney Felise Kelly pushed for an 18-month jail sentence, calling Chaudhry's actions “just beyond the pale.” Baltimore County Circuit Judge Andrew M. Battista, who has served on the bench since his appointment in January 2019, ultimately disagreed, saying he saw no benefit to society in further incarcerating Chaudhry. Battista described Chaudhry's behavior as “awful” but said the incident “could happen to anybody,” weighing Chaudhry's age, health conditions, and community contributions before issuing the sentence.
A Life Built From Pizza Deliveries to Store Ownership
Chaudhry's attorney, Peter O'Neill, told the court his client was not speeding at the time of the crash and that the collision itself was not Chaudhry's fault, though he acknowledged Chaudhry panicked afterward and should have stopped. O'Neill described Chaudhry as “a good man and high-quality individual” and called him “an American success story,” pointing to his path from delivering pizzas for Domino's and working as a 7-Eleven clerk to eventually owning and operating two 7-Eleven locations.
Chaudhry immigrated to the United States from Pakistan in 2003 and has supported his wife and four children in the years since. In court, he pleaded for mercy, apologized for his actions, and said he would never make the same mistake again.
As part of the sentence, Battista ordered Chaudhry to pay more than $1,500 in restitution for Pettaway's funeral expenses along with a $500 fine.
What Maryland Law Says About Fleeing a Fatal Crash
Under Maryland Transportation Code § 20-102 and § 27-113, leaving the scene of a crash resulting in death when a driver knew or reasonably should have known death might occur is a felony carrying up to 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $10,000, according to legal analysis from Mallon & Snyder Law. Separately, Transportation Code § 20-104 requires drivers involved in serious accidents to render reasonable assistance to injured people, and a conviction for leaving the scene of a fatal crash triggers 12 points on a driver's license and automatic license revocation proceedings through the Motor Vehicle Administration, per the MyMDLegal traffic law blog.
The gap between that statutory maximum and the probationary sentence Chaudhry received underscores the discretion judges hold when weighing personal circumstances against the severity of a fatal hit-and-run.
Old Court Road's Recent History of Deadly Crashes
Pettaway's death is one of several fatal incidents that have struck Old Court Road and the surrounding Baltimore County corridor in the past year. In February, a multi-vehicle collision on Old Court Road at Harden Lane in Pikesville killed a 31-year-old driver and sent multiple people to area hospitals, as Hoodline previously reported. That same month, Baltimore County Police searched for a fleeing driver after a pedestrian was struck and killed at Security Boulevard and Gwynn Oak Avenue in nearby Woodlawn.
Less than a month before Chaudhry's sentencing, 60-year-old John Bates Sr. was fatally struck while crossing Liberty Road near Old Court Road on July 14, hit by a driver who initially fled before returning minutes later, according to the Daily Voice.
Statewide Numbers Show a Different Trend
The local pattern of fatal crashes stands in some contrast to statewide data. Preliminary traffic safety figures released by the Office of Governor Wes Moore in February showed Maryland pedestrian and bicyclist fatalities dropped 33% in 2025, falling to 116 deaths from 173 the year before, and pushed overall statewide traffic fatalities down to 480, the lowest count since 2014. Nationally, drivers struck and killed an estimated 6,732 pedestrians in 2025, a 7% decline from 2024 and the third consecutive annual drop, according to the Governors Highway Safety Association.
The Maryland State Highway Administration has been directing money toward the problem as well, allocating more than $7 million in federal fiscal year 2025 and planning roughly $21 million for fiscal year 2026 toward safety improvements like high-visibility crosswalks and pedestrian refuge islands for vulnerable road users.
For Chaudhry, the sentence closes a case that tested how much weight a judge should give to personal circumstances when a driver flees the scene of a fatal collision. Dylan Segelbaum, the courts reporter who covered the sentencing for The Baltimore Banner, detailed the proceedings that led Battista to conclude prison time would serve no further purpose in Chaudhry's case.
