SNOW HILL — A Salisbury woman charged in June with hit-and-run and leaving the scene of an accident after striking a 6-year-old girl on Baltimore Ave. following the annual Ravens Parade was sentenced last week to three years in jail with all but 18 months suspended, two years of probation after her release and a $500 fine.
Around 1:45 p.m. on June 1, 2013, Ocean City Police and EMS responded to the area of 19th Street and Baltimore Ave. for a report of a child struck by a vehicle. OCPD officers arrived on the scene and determined Jaclyn Shaw, 6, and her mother, Erin Shaw, were attempting to cross Baltimore Ave. from east to west in a crosswalk at 19th Street when the child was struck by a vehicle traveling southbound. The accident occurred as many pedestrians were leaving the area on foot following the annual Ravens Parade downtown.
The vehicle’s driver, later identified Jasmine Shuman, 18, of Salisbury, initially stopped after the collision, but then fled the scene. Shuman later told police she stopped and intended to stay, but panicked when a crowd gathered at the scene. Shuman was located a short time later by an OCPD foot officer as she was about to head west in her vehicle across the Route 50 Bridge.
Shuman was charged initially with multiple traffic citations related to the collision and appeared headed to District Court. She was scheduled to appear for trial in District Court in late July when the Worcester County Sheriff’s Office added a charge of second-degree assault, sending the case to the Circuit Court.
Shuman appeared in Worcester County Circuit Court in November and ultimately pleaded guilty to an amended count of failure to remain at the scene of an accident involving serious bodily injury, which is a felony. Going into the November proceedings, Shuman had not been charged with any felonies related to the case.
The plea was somewhat unique because typically a count for which a defendant agrees to plead guilty is amended down to a lesser charge with more lenient maximum penalties. In this case, however, the count to which Shuman pleaded guilty was amended up to a felony, which carried a maximum penalty of five years. A pre-sentence investigation was ordered.
The victim was treated at the scene and was later flown by Maryland State Police helicopter to the University of Maryland Center for Shock Trauma. She remained in the hospital with severe head trauma before being sent home.