WESTMINSTER, Md. — A 41-year-old Woodstock man received a three-year prison sentence after pleading guilty to charges stemming from a 2017 drunk driving death, the Office of the State’s Attorney for Carroll County said in a statement.
William Charles pleaded guilty to the charge of homicide by motor vehicle while impaired by alcohol in the drunk driving the death of 29-year-old Christopher Ryan Flack, the statement said.
According to the prosecution, Charles was impaired and driving on Old Taneytown Road on Sept. 23, 2017, when he he began to cross the center line and crashed head on into a truck being driven by Fleck. Fleck had been driving in the car with his wife, Erica Fleck, who survived the crash.
At the scene, police said Charles smelled of alcohol and admitted to drinking “two shots and a beer prior to driving,” the statement said. He refused police conducting a subsequent blood alcohol while being treated for minor injuries at a hospital. His medical records later showed that the physician who treated Charles diagnosed him as being intoxicated.
“These cases are most difficult to handle as the reality is that I cannot give the family of the deceased what they want,” said Judge Thomas F. Stansfield during the plea hearing. “I cannot restore the life of your son and I hope that your faith will help you through this.”
The three-year sentence is the maximum for the crime Charles pleaded guilty to.
“This was a senseless and tragic crime that could have been prevented,” Carroll County State’s Attorney Brian DeLeonardo said in a statement. “My office will continue to aggressively prosecute these crimes to make the streets of Carroll County a safer place.”
