A 59-year-old Hanover man has pleaded guilty to federal involuntary manslaughter after prosecutors say he was drunk and driving 102 mph when he crossed into oncoming lanes of the Baltimore-Washington Parkway and killed a 48-year-old father of five. Vincent Antwonn Still had a blood-alcohol level of .259 — more than three times Maryland's legal limit — when the crash happened on August 5, 2023, according to federal prosecutors.
The U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Maryland announced the guilty plea on Monday, saying Assistant U.S. Attorneys Colleen Elizabeth McGuinn and Ellen Nazmy prosecuted the case alongside U.S. Park Police Chief Scott Brecht. As reported by WBFF, Still was driving northbound on the parkway when he lost control of his vehicle, crossed into the southbound lanes, and struck the victim's car head-on. Authorities say Still had already struck one vehicle from behind and was weaving through traffic at a high rate of speed before the fatal collision.
Investigators with the U.S. Park Police examined the vehicle's event data recorder and found that Still was traveling 102 mph shortly before impact, in a stretch of the parkway posted for 55 mph. The data also showed he never applied the brakes. Physicians treating him afterward noted a strong odor of alcohol, the station's report states.
Blood Draw at Shock Trauma Confirmed Extreme Intoxication
Still was transported to the University of Maryland Shock Trauma Center in Baltimore, where his blood-alcohol concentration of .259 was drawn roughly an hour after the crash, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Maryland. That reading is more than three times Maryland's per se intoxication threshold of 0.08% BAC, per the Maryland Department of Transportation Motor Vehicle Administration. Public court releases have not disclosed the victim's name.
U.S. Attorney Kelly O. Hayes credited a wide range of local and federal emergency agencies with assisting the Park Police investigation, including Anne Arundel County Fire and Rescue, Howard County Fire and Rescue, and the National Security Agency Police. The multi-agency response reflects the parkway's location near federal installations including Fort Meade and NSA headquarters.
Why a Maryland Crash Landed in Federal Court
The case was prosecuted in federal court rather than Maryland state court because the crash occurred on a 19-mile stretch of the Baltimore-Washington Parkway that the National Park Service owns and manages, running from the Washington, D.C. border to Maryland Route 175 near Fort Meade. That federal ownership puts traffic enforcement under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Park Police, according to the National Park Service.
Still pleaded guilty to violating 18 U.S.C. § 1112, the federal statute defining involuntary manslaughter as an unlawful killing without malice resulting from an unlawful act or gross negligence. The charge carries a statutory maximum of eight years in prison, according to the Legal Information Institute. Separately, driving under the influence on National Park Service property is also barred under 36 CFR § 4.23, a regulation carrying penalties of up to six months in prison and a $5,000 fine.
Sentencing Guidelines and Open Questions
Under Federal Sentencing Guidelines § 2A1.4, homicides caused by driving under the influence are ordinarily treated as reckless conduct, which establishes a base offense level judges use to calculate advisory prison ranges, per the United States Sentencing Commission. While Still faces up to eight years under the statute, his actual sentence will be determined by a federal judge applying those guidelines, and neither the length of that sentence nor a formal sentencing date has been announced.
The Baltimore-Washington Parkway has a long history of serious crashes. State traffic safety analyses reported in 2021 found the corridor averages more than 500 vehicle crashes per year, making it one of the most crash-prone highways in central Maryland. Statewide, impaired driving contributes to roughly 15% of all traffic collisions out of more than 110,000 annual crashes, according to Maryland State Police statistics.
The parkway has seen several other deadly crashes investigated by the U.S. Park Police in recent months, including a multi-vehicle pileup near Greenbelt and a fatal pre-dawn crash near Laurel. Those cases, like Still's, underscore how a stretch of highway built in the 1950s to link federal sites between Baltimore and Washington continues to carry heavy commuter traffic despite narrow shoulders and short ramps.
