Hagerstown man pleads guilty to assault, DUI connected to multiple hit and runs

A Washington County District Court judge delayed sentencing Thursday to get a pre-sentence investigation after a Hagerstown man involved in hit-and-run crashes pleaded guilty to driving under the influence of alcohol and assaulting two Hagerstown Police officers.

Judge Victoria J. Lobley told James Kenneth Leaman Jr., 44, she was taking his case seriously, given his history and that it sounded like he could have killed somebody, including police officers, during the incidents. The crashes occurred April 7, and a civilian was injured during one of them.

Among the background that came up during his court appearance Thursday was that Leaman has a second-degree murder conviction from 2005, Assistant States Attorney Daniel Scanlan told Lobley.

Defense attorney George Kirk told Lobley that Leaman was released about 10 years ago on the murder charge, to which he pleaded guilty. Kirk said Leaman "became very institutionalized" while in prison and has had difficulty adjusting to life outside prison.

The experience contributed to his substance use, Kirk said. Leaman was seeing a therapist and getting treatment for substance use before the April 7 incidents.

Kirk said Leaman was on multiple medications including an alcohol blocker at that time. Leaman and his family had been in the process of moving and he misplaced his medication. While he contacted the pharmacy to resolve the situation, Leaman was off his medication for several days and "unwisely" decided to drink and use drugs, Kirk said.

Scanlan had told Lobley that while at Meritus Medical Center after the crashes, Leaman admitted to being under the influence of alcohol and cocaine.

"He messed up and he relapsed," Kirk said.

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Multiple hit-and-run crashes leave an injured Hagerstown bystander

Hagerstown Police responded to a shopping center parking lot at 172 N. Burhans Blvd. around 4:35 p.m. on April 7, a Sunday, for a reported hit and run, according to charging documents.

They determined a Ford utility truck Leaman was driving hit another vehicle, Scanlan said. Police were trying to get insurance information about the work truck when Leaman got into the truck and started it.

Officer John Addington approached the driver's side, opened the door and told Leaman to get out, according to charging documents. The truck backed up, "lightly tapping" Addington and nearly hitting another officer with the open door. Then the truck moved forward and accelerated, nearly hitting Addington, the other officer and a third officer.

Hagerstown Police Lt. Rebecca Fetchu said in April that officers initially followed the truck, but there was no high-speed pursuit and officers stopped directly following Leaman when the truck went the wrong way up North Prospect Street.

The truck hit two vehicles before turning onto Prospect, according to charging documents.

Police took a parallel route on Jonathan Street to get to the intersection of West North Avenue and North Prospect. They saw the truck had crashed into multiple parked vehicles and a pedestrian was injured.

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Scanlan said the pedestrian, Army veteran Shane Green, had a crushed ankle. Leaman left the truck and fled, despite Green screaming, the prosecutor said.

Scanlan offered to show Lobley the video, but she said she had a good idea of what happened.

Another civilian chased Leaman south behind a warehouse in the 300 block of North Prospect, where police found Leaman on the ground with that other man, Zachary Sturgill, 25, on top of him, according to charging documents.

Sturgill told police he heard a loud crash, saw the injured bystander and then the driver trying to flee and chased Leaman down and tackled him, holding him until officers arrived.

On Thursday, Leaman pleaded guilty to two counts of second-degree assault for assaulting Addington and one of the other officers. He also pleaded guilty to failure to return and remain at the scene of a crash involving bodily injury and to driving or attempting to drive while under the influence of alcohol.

Scanlan asked for 20 years with all of that suspended except for four years.

Kirk asked for a "local sentence with backup time" so Leaman can get out and work to pay restitution in the case.

That restitution is at least $1,900, according to the costs Scanlon listed for various victims' damages, including Green's medical copays.

Prior murder conviction in Prince George's County

Leaman's priors include the second-degree murder conviction in 2005, Scanlan told the judge, which occurred in Laurel, Md.

According to charging documents in that case, Leaman was visiting family in Laurel on April 4, 2004, when he was left alone with Christopher Thomas McHale, 43. Leaman got a shotgun from an upstairs bedroom and came back downstairs and shot McHale in the torso.

Police were dispatched to the scene around 10:07 a.m. the next day for a death report and found McHale dead on the couch. Police interviewed Leaman as a witness and both verbally and in writing Leaman admitted he shot and killed McHale, charging documents state. Leaman helped investigators recover the double-barreled shotgun in a wooded area in Charles County, Md. At the time, Leaman's address was in Charles County, south of Washington, D.C.

A medical ruling after an autopsy determined McHale's manner of death was homicide.

Leaman was sentenced to 30 years for the murder.

This article originally appeared on The Herald-Mail: Hagerstown man pleads guilty to assault, DUI connected to multiple hit and runs