A 34-year-old Avenue man was sentenced to 10 years in prison, with eight years to serve, for killing a 66-year-old man who was standing outside his own vehicle on the shoulder of a St. Mary's County road. Kendall Deshong Young pleaded guilty in August to felony negligent manslaughter by automobile after prosecutors said he was using his cell phone when he drove onto the shoulder and struck James Michael Lacey and the rear of Lacey's car.
The crash happened on March 19, 2025, at the intersection of Point Lookout Road and St. Andrews Church Road in Leonardtown, according to The Southern Maryland Chronicle. Lacey, a resident of Avenue, had his hazard lights on while parked on the shoulder when Young's vehicle struck him. Maryland State Police troopers responded to what was initially reported as a two-vehicle collision, and the outlet reports that a witness told investigators he watched Young use his phone and drive erratically for roughly five miles before the crash.
Hunter Gardner led the investigation, and Carolynn Grammas prosecuted the case, which was presided over by Judge Kevin Hill. Along with the prison term, Young was ordered to serve five years of supervised probation, complete 200 hours of community service, finish a driver improvement course, and attend a victim impact panel.
Prosecutor Says Bystanders Helped Crack the Case
St. Mary's County State's Attorney Jaymi Sterling, who announced the sentence, said citizens who stopped to render aid at the scene also provided crucial evidence to police. Sterling called distracted driving a dangerous choice and said she will continue fighting for victims, families, and the community, per the same account from the Chronicle.
Why Sterling Says Eight Years Isn't Enough
Sterling used Young's sentencing to renew her call for the Maryland General Assembly to reclassify vehicular manslaughter as a crime of violence, a change she has pushed for years through legislation known as Jamari's Law. Under current Maryland law, vehicular manslaughter carries a maximum 10-year sentence and is not classified as a crime of violence, according to the Chronicle's reporting. That classification matters because, under Maryland Correctional Services Code § 7-301, individuals incarcerated for non-violent offenses such as vehicular manslaughter become eligible for parole after serving just 25% of their sentence, according to Westlaw.
That statutory quirk means an eight-year active sentence like Young's could, in theory, result in release far sooner than the headline number suggests. Sterling, who serves on the legislative committee of the Maryland State's Attorneys Association, has previously testified before the Maryland Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee that Maryland's current 10-year maximum sentence for vehicular manslaughter is identical to the maximum penalty for writing a bad check, according to The BayNet.
The Case That Started It All
Jamari's Law takes its name from 18-year-old Jamari Duckett of Great Mills, who was killed in July 2022 when an intoxicated driver traveling between 76 and 91 mph in a 40 mph zone struck his vehicle, The BayNet has reported. The driver convicted in that case was released on parole after serving roughly two and a half years of a maximum 10-year sentence, according to WRC-TV — an outcome Sterling and others have cited repeatedly as proof the current system fails victims' families.
A Bill With Bipartisan Support That Still Can't Clear the House
The proposed legislation, formally known as SB 66 and HB 873, would increase the maximum prison penalty for first-offense gross negligent vehicular manslaughter from 10 to 20 years, and for subsequent offenses from 15 to 30 years, according to BillTrack50. Jamari's Law passed the Maryland Senate unanimously in 2024 but stalled in the House before adjournment, and it subsequently failed to move out of committee during both the 2025 and 2026 legislative sessions, The BayNet reports. Mothers Against Drunk Driving has supported the bill, which has been reintroduced for the coming legislative session with a target effective date of October 2026.
A Deadly Corridor Already Flagged for Safety Fixes
The Point Lookout Road and St. Andrews Church Road corridor where Lacey was killed has already drawn attention from local officials. St. Mary's County included that same MD Route 5 and MD Route 4 travel corridor in its FY 2027 transportation priority requests to the state, seeking feasibility funding for highway widening and safety evaluations, according to the Maryland Department of Transportation.
Statewide, Maryland recorded 207 traffic fatalities through mid-July 2026, a decrease from the 245 traffic deaths logged over the same period in 2025, per the Maryland Department of Transportation. The state logged 110,401 total crashes in 2023 alone, resulting in 41,538 injuries and 621 fatalities, according to data compiled by Gelb & Gelb, P.C. For Sterling, cases like Young's remain evidence that the numbers behind the wheel — and the law meant to punish those who cause deadly crashes — still have a long way to go.
