A 28-year-old man who led police on a chase from Frederick to Thurmont last summer, injuring two, was sentenced to 10 years in prison Tuesday.
Roy Ellsworth Summers II, of the 8000 block of Hollow Reed Court, was sentenced on two counts of second-degree assault and one count of driving while impaired.
He had been charged with two counts of first-degree assault, two counts of second- degree assault, fleeing and eluding, driving while impaired by a controlled dangerous substance and negligent driving after the July 17 crimes.
Deputies arrested Summers at about 7 a.m. July 18 after he was released from Frederick Memorial Hospital, where he was taken for a mental evaluation after crashing his silver Mercury Grand Marquis into two cars, including a deputy’s cruiser, the sheriff’s office said.
Summers was under the influence of PCP during the chase, attorneys said Tuesday.
The chase began at about 3:10 p.m. when a deputy saw Summers driving erratically on North Market Street near Schifferstadt Boulevard. The Mercury was traveling on the shoulder at high speeds and weaving in and out of traffic.
While deputies chased Summers north on U.S. 15, he rear-ended a black Hyundai Elantra, then deliberately rammed the car two more times while trying to push it off the road, the sheriff’s office said.
The Mercury then struck a deputy’s cruiser twice before it stopped on U.S. 15 at Stull Road, the sheriff’s office said.
Summers was uninjured. He was taken into custody after a brief struggle.
A police officer and a civilian were injured, prosecutor Tammy Leache said. The civilian needed long-term treatment and incurred large hospital bills, she said. Summers was not ordered to pay restitution because the man’s health insurance paid for the treatment.
Alan Winik, Summers’ defense attorney, said many of his problems with the law stem from drug abuse. Winik asked Judge Julie Stevenson Solt to consider a local, 18-month sentence. Summers is a good father to his two sons, who are 10 and 3, and companion to a girlfriend of 14 years, Winik said.
Leache told Solt the crimes carried a sentence of nine to 19 years under the state’s uniform sentencing guidelines and underscored the fact that a bystander was injured. She also pointed out Summers’ criminal history.
He was also sentenced Tuesday on a violation of probation. In that case, Solt sentenced him to 10 years in prison and suspended all but five years. She also modified his sentence to allow him to be released early to attend a long-term drug treatment center. In that case, he was already considered a “major offender,” Solt said.
“I really don’t know that I have any other choice,” Solt said, when explaining her decision to impose a lengthy sentence in the most recent case.
She sentenced Summers to 10 years in prison on one of the assault charges and an additional 10 years for the second assault charge. The second 10-year sentence is suspended, but Summers could be sent back to prison on that charge if he violates three years of supervised probation.
A three-year sentence on the violation of probation charge will run concurrent with his overall sentence.
Summers apologized during Tuesday’s hearing.
“I feel ashamed. I’ve never had to fight anything as hard as addiction,” he said. “I’m just ready for a new way of life.”
