A D.C. man who killed a Howard University student while speeding off the Baltimore-Washington Parkway is entering a guilty plea.
Darnell Bassett, 24, is pleading guilty to involuntary manslaughter in the death of 27-year-old Brittany Burks.
Robert Hur, the U.S. attorney for Maryland, announced the plea agreement, which carries a sentence of up to eight years.
On June 24, Hur’s office said in a statement, Bassett collided with a D.C. police cruiser in Northeast and took off the wrong way on a one-way street. Police followed him onto the B.W. Parkway. Despite blowing out a tire along the way, Bassett continued to speed around traffic and down the shoulder, exiting onto Interstate 495, where he rear-ended a Honda CRV that was stopped in a safety zone between the ramp and travel lanes.
The impact flipped the Honda and killed Burks, who had moved from New York to study dentistry at Howard.
Bassett will be sentenced in November.
“As part of his plea agreement, Bassett is also required to pay restitution in the full amount of the victim’s losses and injuries caused to the victim and the victim’s vehicle, which includes but is not limited to the costs of the victim’s funeral and burial costs,” Hur’s office said.
