The crash in Montgomery County, Maryland, that took the life of a Virginia father of five this week is shining a spotlight on how Maryland law treats juveniles.
William Vance Payne II, 58, of Virginia, was killed in the two-vehicle, Tuesday morning crash in Germantown. Police said the other driver was a 13-year-old boy in a stolen car.
“If the child is 15 or over, then the child could be tried as an adult. But if a child has not reached his 15th birthday yet, then that child can only be tried as an adult if the act that he committed would be punishable by life imprisonment,” criminal defense attorney Steve Vinick, with the law firm Stein Sperling, told 小萝莉影视.
In a case involving a 13-year-old, Maryland law would place that child in juvenile court, Vinick said.
“If the person stays in juvenile court, they are getting a huge break. No. 1, they can be detained, but only to the age of 21. In addition, everything that happens in juvenile court is sealed. It will never come up again unless the child, as an adult, commits an offense, and then the juvenile record can be referred to,” he said.
Potential charges in a case like this vary, he said. One possibility is a charge of manslaughter by vehicle gross negligence, “and the other would be manslaughter by criminal negligence.”
“Gross negligence in Maryland is defined as reckless disregard for the safety and life of others,” Vinick said.
“If a person is, for example, driving 100 mph, or deliberately going through red lights, never stopping, swerving around,” he said, that would fall in the category of gross negligent manslaughter and could carry a 10-year prison sentence.
Criminal negligent manslaughter carries a maximum penalty of three years in prison for first offenders.
Maryland’s juvenile laws came under scrutiny during the 2026 Maryland General Assembly session when the Youth Charging Reform Act was passed and signed into law by Gov. Wes Moore.
The law, which goes into effect Oct. 1, stops the automatic charging of juveniles as adults for certain crimes, instead, starting those cases in juvenile court.
Supporters of the bill argued many of the cases funneled to adult court ended back in juvenile court, and insisted that automatic adult prosecution didn’t make communities safer.
Opponents including the Maryland State’s Attorneys’ Association argued the legislation should have been put on hold for three years, until the Department of Juvenile Services could provide more programming for young offenders.
Vinick said juvenile court serves a much different purpose than adult court.
“The goal is to get this person, this child, this minor rehabilitated and put on the right track, so that when they become an adult and they’re no longer under the jurisdiction of juvenile court, they can live a productive life and not get in trouble or not commit offenses,” he said.
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