A man who fled Baltimore Police in a stolen car, fatally struck a pedestrian and then crashed into a vacant building was sentenced Thursday to serve more than 29 years in prison.
Baltimore Circuit Judge Dana M. Middleton said Shawn Brunson did not have control over the circumstances of his childhood and endured trauma. But, she said, despite seeking treatment in the past, he continued to make bad choices.
“I can’t minimize childhood trauma that you went through or that you faced,” Middleton said. “But that does not give you the right to hurt other people.”
Middleton ordered Brunson to serve a total of 29 years, four months and 24 days in prison on charges of vehicular manslaughter, theft and driving without a license, along with a violation of probation: the maximum sentence.
“You had a chance,” she said. “And you blew it.”
On Feb. 8, 2023, Brunson was fleeing police in a stolen 2017 Hyundai Sonata when he ran a red light at the intersection of North Wolfe Street and East North Avenue in Broadway East, hit a 2006 Mitsubishi Eclipse, struck Alfred Fincher and then crashed into a vacant building, which partially collapsed.
Fincher, 54, of Baltimore, was pronounced dead at the scene. A CitiWatch camera captured the crash.
The Baltimore State’s Attorney’s Office declined to bring charges against the police officers.
Assistant State’s Attorney Rita Wisthoff-Ito pushed for the maximum sentence.
“The reality is, this defendant is still going to get out,” Wisthoff-Ito said. “Mr. Fincher got a life sentence.”
Wisthoff-Ito scoffed at any characterization of the crime as an accident. She noted that other people were hurt in the crash, including a woman who now must use a wheelchair. “Let’s be clear,” she said, “the defendant is not the victim.”
Though Brunson experienced a horrific childhood, “unfortunately we see this so much in the city,” Wisthoff-Ito said. Brunson, she said, was given multiple chances in life.
The driver of the 2006 Mitsubishi Eclipse, Perciller Sherman, said her life has changed forever.
“We can’t wake up from this nightmare,” Sherman said. “We didn’t ask to be here. We were put here in this place of pain.”
Fincher’s daughter, Kelli, asserted that Brunson has not shown remorse.
“He still has a life. My father doesn’t,” she said. “It’s not fair.”
Assistant Public Defender Gregory Fischer, Brunson’s attorney, asked the judge to start the process of committing his client to a dual diagnosis program to address his mental health issues and substance use disorder.
Fischer at length discussed his client’s childhood, describing it as “chaotic and toxic.”
He was removed from home at age 5 and placed into foster care. He was exposed to significantly elevated levels of lead paint. And he witnessed the murder of his 9-month-old brother, Eric Rogers, in 1994, Fischer said.
Brunson, he said, self-medicated to dull the pain.
Cigarettes. Cannabis. Alcohol. Xanax. Cocaine.
Sometimes, heroin.
“What happened here was a terrible, terrible tragedy,” Fischer said. “But the solution, Your Honor, to this terrible tragedy is not to warehouse Mr. Brunson.”
If the judge was inclined to hand down a period of incarceration, Fischer asked her to make his client eligible for a treatment program at the Patuxent Institution, a maximum-security prison.
Brunson, 35, of Fallstaff, apologized and said he did not intend to harm anyone.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “I wish I could take it back.”
Whatever sentence he received, Brunson said, he would remain strong.
