Driver acquitted of Route 100 homicide

An Anne Arundel County jury has acquitted a Pasadena man of vehicular homicide in the death of another driver last November on Route 100 in Glen Burnie.

The jury deliberated for about two hours before finding Zachary A. Covington not guilty last week of killing John Frederick Cornelius, 66, of Fort Washington.

The jury also acquitted Covington of reckless driving, but did find him guilty of negligent driving for speeding and passing on the right. He was ordered to pay a $500 fine.

During the two-day trial in Anne Arundel County Circuit Court, prosecutors argued that Covington was weaving aggressively through traffic in a 2005 BMW when he struck the rear of a 2008 Ford F-150 and then the back of Cornelius’ 1991 Nissan Sentra, which flipped over.

Covington’s attorney, Bruce M. Robinson, countered that Covington was driving defensively to avoid two cars that were drag racing down the street at about 7:10 p.m. on Nov. 28.

Covington, 26, merely clipped bumpers with Cornelius’ car, said Robinson. It is his belief that one of the drag racers was involved in the fatal collision that flipped the Sentra.

The drivers of the two racing vehicles (identified as a silver Ford Mustang and a white Toyota RAV4) have not been located, Robinson said.

Four eyewitnesses were called during the trial — three for the prosecution and one for the defense. None of the witnesses pointed to Cornelius’ car as the vehicle that caused the Sentra to lose control, Robinson said.

“The government’s perspective is we nailed [the Sentra] in the rear,” Robinson said Friday. “Every single witness saw these other cars racing down the street.”

Witnesses also testified that Covington, a radiology technician at Prince William Hospital in Virginia, assisted emergency medical technicians in rendering aid to Cornelius, Robinson said. Cornelius later died at the University of Maryland R Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center in Baltimore.

The police and prosecution “were trying to lynch” Covington by bringing a case against him without any witnesses or physical evidence linking him to the fatal crash, said Robinson, a Baltimore solo practitioner.

As a result, Covington endured nearly “a year of a nightmare, when he tried to help on the scene,” Robinson added.

(In an unrelated event, court records show that Covington was arrested on Jan. 19 and charged with driving under the influence of alcohol. A status conference in that is scheduled for Wednesday in Anne Arundel County Circuit Court.)

Through a spokeswoman, Anne Arundel County State’s Attorney Frank R. Weathersbee objected to Robinson’s characterization of the vehicular homicide case.

“Mr. Covington was properly charged and properly prosecuted,” Kristin Fleckenstein said Friday. “It was a case that should have been prosecuted.”