One of two drivers in fatal construction zone crash along Baltimore Beltway sentenced to 18 months

One of two drivers involved in a vehicle crash last March that killed six construction workers along the Baltimore Beltway was sentenced to 18 months in prison Thursday.

In January, Melachi Duane Darnell Brown, 21, pleaded guilty to six counts of negligent vehicular manslaughter — one count each for victims Rolando Ruiz, Carlos Orlando Villatoro Escobar, Jose Armando Escobar, Mahlon Simmons II, Mahlon Simmons III and Sybil Lee DiMaggio.

On Thursday, as part of a plea agreement Baltimore County Circuit Judge Vicki Ballou-Watts largely adhered to, Brown’s 60-year sentence was reduced to 1 1/2 years. Brown, a Windsor Mills resident, will not receive credit for the time he has spent in home detention awaiting trial.

Jennifer Kafes, Brown’s defense attorney, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Brown was one of two drivers going faster than 100 mph when a collision on I-695 sent the second vehicle through a gap in the barriers and directly into the workers.

Lisa Adrienne Lea, who drove her Acura TLX into Brown while attempting to change lanes, is scheduled to appear in Baltimore County Circuit Court for a motions hearing May 8.

In the early afternoon on March 22, 2023, Lea and Brown sped down the beltway’s inner loop at more than twice the posted speed limit, prosecutors said. Impaired by drugs or a combination of drugs and alcohol, according to her indictment, Lea’s attempt to enter the left-most passing lane resulted in a crash, causing her to spin out and veer into the work zone. All six workers were pronounced dead at the scene and both drivers were charged with felony manslaughter.

Five of the workers killed were employees of Concrete General: Ruiz, 46, of Laurel; Carlos Escobar, 43, his brother Jose Escobar, 52, both from Frederick; as well as Mahlon Simmons II, 52, and his son Mahlon Simmons III, 31, both from Union Bridge. The sixth, DiMaggio, 46, lived in Glen Burnie and was working as an inspector for KCI Technologies.

According to the State Highway Administration, the contractors were working on a project to address congestion along I-695 from I-70 to Maryland Route 43 by converting parts of the existing median shoulder into a travel lane.

George Durm, DiMaggio’s husband, told The Baltimore Sun last March that his wife was “terrified of that job site.”

At the time of the crash, which occurred north of the beltway exits onto I-70 and Security Boulevard and South of Liberty Road, Brown was driving 111 mph while Lea was going 108 mph, prosecutors said. The posted speed limit was 55 mph.

Lea was seriously injured and was later released from the University of Maryland Shock Trauma Center in Baltimore, according to Maryland State Police, while Brown reported no injuries and remained at the scene.

Through its brutality and oddity — one expert who reviewed footage described the collision as a one in a million, or even a one in a billion possibility — the crash disturbed many. Gov. Wes Moore directed the Maryland flag be lowered to half-staff in the days after and U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg initiated a moment of silence during a hearing in the U.S. Senate.

“We still see too many fatal crashes on our roads,” Buttigieg said last year. “We cannot and must not accept roadway fatalities are an inevitable part of life in America.”