Cpl. Courtney G. Brooks left his new home in Hampstead on Dec. 31, 2007, wearing his pressed uniform, leather boots and black nylon belt.
Kerri J. King left her home in Elkton on the same day wearing pajama bottoms with fruit slice imprints, green slippers shaped like frogs and a black spaghetti tank top with "Lust" spelled out in rhinestones across her chest.
Brooks arrived at Exit 53 on Interstate 95, where he voluntarily relieved a tired colleague and stood on the highway to prevent trucks from entering Baltimore during the New Year's fireworks celebration.
King showed up at a strip club on The Block where she danced and told the doorman, "I'm here to party."
Brooks carried his gun and department-issued flashlight. King had a bottle of vodka and three condoms.
Their distinctly different worlds collided at 11:17 p.m. when King, driving her green Ford Explorer on northbound I-95, veered to the left to avoid getting onto the I-395 spur that goes into downtown, ran over 16 lighted flares while traveling 44.77 mph and struck Brooks with the left side of her vehicle.
Brooks, a 13-year veteran with the Maryland Transportation Authority Police, was thrown 71.9 feet across the interstate and died almost instantly.
Assistant State's Attorney Theresa Shaffer offered this detailed account yesterday in Baltimore Circuit Court as King pleaded guilty to vehicular manslaughter, driving under the influence of alcohol and leaving the scene of an accident. Judge Thomas J.S. Waxter sentenced King to 16 years in prison.
Shaffer's recounting of the horrific details took nearly 45 minutes. She led the judge and Brooks' family through the days and lives of both suspect and victim, letting their divergent paths speak for themselves.
Brooks had just asked his girlfriend and mother of two of his children to marry him - he proposed in the cemetery next to the gravestones marking the spot his parents are buried, and had the ceremony planned for a historic Baltimore church his grandparents still attend.
The officer's uncle and godfather, grandmother, sister and his fiancee spoke on his behalf, choking back tears as they recalled how Brooks, affectionately known as "Spankey," wrote poems and played pranks, how he talked his sister, Kelly Tucker, through hard times. Tucker said simply, "He was just a great person to have in your life."
Waxter turned to King, who stared straight ahead, and said, "She is going to suffer, and under these circumstances, she should."
