Crime & Safety

Woman Pleads Guilty in Fatal Howard County Crash

Alison Lesley Walsh will be sentenced in April for the death of 68-year-old Cecilia Amato.

A Carroll County woman who said she was changing the music on her iPod when she drove into a couple on a motorcycle in Howard County, killing a 68-year-old woman, pleaded guilty in Circuit Court this morning to negligent manslaughter.

Alison Lesley Walsh, 23, had a blood alcohol level of .17 on the night of the accident, according to police.

Under the terms of the plea agreement, the state is expected to ask that Walsh, of Hampstead, be sentenced to 10 years, with five years suspended and five years to serve.

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According to witnesses, on June 11, 2010, at about 8:10 p.m., 74-year-old Antonio Amato was in W. Friendship, driving his motorcycle home from Gettysburg, Penn. with his wife, Cecilia, 68, as his passenger.

One witness, Richard Martin Jr., said in his statement that he saw the motorcycle slowing down on U.S. 40 eastbound to stop at the intersection of Marriottsville Road, when he noticed a Honda Civic approaching, in the same direction and lane as the motorcycle, at a “high rate of speed, approximately 60 to 70 mph.”

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Martin said the Civic, driven by Walsh, didn’t swerve or try to move around the motorcycle, but hit it from behind, pushing it into the intersection.

In her statement, Katherine Wah said she saw Mrs. Amato roll onto the hood of the car, then onto the roof, falling into the street and landing near the median. She said Mr. Amato fell off the motorcycle, which kept moving until it hit a guardrail. He seemed to be stuck on something, she said, and was calling out for his wife.

Walsh got out of her car to try to help Mr. Amato; “I’ve never hit anyone on a motorcycle before,” Wah said Walsh told her.

Mrs. Amato was awake and complaining of pain as she and her husband were taken to University of Maryland Shock Trauma.  But she died just before 2 a.m. from internal bleeding and had injuries to her spine, spinal cord and ribs.

According to police, Walsh agreed to a chemical blood alcohol test about an hour and 10 minutes after the accident. Her blood alcohol level was .17. The legal limit for intoxication in Maryland is .08.

Walsh is free on bond until her sentencing hearing, scheduled for April 7.


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