The chief of the Transportation Authority police, Marcus Brown, sat in the front row and, after listening to Shaffer's retelling of the deadly day, said he was relieved the family was spared a trial. He noted that 16 years for manslaughter is a hefty sentence and said, "I hope this becomes the standard."
It was evident from Shaffer's opening statement that police and prosecutors had built a detailed case of King's night of partying, down to her DNA found on a smudge on the neck of the vodka bottle.
Had there been a trial, witnesses who encountered King before the crash would've included a dancer who saw her stumble up the stairs at the Chez Joey strip club and throw up in a bucket while sitting on a toilet; a waiter at Uno Chicago Grill who stopped serving her alcohol and repeatedly told her and a friend to quiet down; and an attendant who cleaned her vomit from a parking machine.
After the officer was struck, witnesses would've included three young women in a car behind King who saw her tap her brakes but then speed up; a man heading home to New Jersey who chased her to a toll plaza and wrote down her license plate number; a clerk who accepted her $50 bill for the $2 toll; a "churchwoman" who saw her inspecting the damage to her car on Mulberry Street while people were getting out of a midnight Mass; a Royal Farms clerk who sold her cigarettes and saw her damaged car; and customers at a truck stop near her home where she dumped her damaged vehicle.
Just before a sheriff's deputy led King away in handcuffs, the judge gave her a chance to speak. Her attorney, who had been silent for the entire proceeding, asked only that wrapped Christmas gifts that were in her car when police seized it two years ago be returned to her children.
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Talk with Peter Hermann about crime through the Baltimore Crime Beat blog at baltimoresun.com/crime
