State v. Maxon
May 05, 2015OUTCOME: Charges Reduced from Felony to Misdemeanors
WMDT attorneys, Jeff Kortes and Jerry Lykins, have successfully resolved another difficult case for a client, ending a year-long ordeal for a young man. In early 2014, a young Kent County resident acci ... dentally struck a woman while she had been walking in the street rather than on the sidewalk. Very unfortunately, this resulted in her death. The young man involved thought he had struck a trash container on the side of the road and continued driving to work rather than stopping to see what he had struck. Later in the day, upon hearing information released to the media, he realized that he had not struck a trash container but had hit a woman. He immediately went to GRPD and cooperated with law enforcement in their investigation informing them that this had been an accident. Unfortunately, despite his full cooperation, the police eventually charged him with Failure to Stop and Identify at an Accident Causing Death, a felony charge that carries the possibility of a 5 year prison sentence offense. The young man initially hired a large local law firm with little significant criminal defense experience. After that firm was unable to successfully resolve the case and had billed thousands of dollars, the client sought out WMDT. Both Jeff Kortes and Jerry Lykins worked skillfully with the Kent County prosecutors and the assigned judge to resolve the case days before the scheduled jury trial for two misdemeanor driving offenses. This reduction permitted the client to avoid the draconian effects of a felony conviction on his record! WMDT’s resolution of this case permitted both the victim’s family and our client to move forward with each party feeling satisfied that fairness and equity was accomplished. This type of resolution was achieved based upon years of building credibility with prosecutors and demonstrating the capacity to successfully litigate criminal cases.
