Tevon Smith, a former Maryland Transit Administration light rail operator, pleaded guilty to reckless endangerment Friday in the death of 17-year-old Lamar Patterson, who was killed while driving to school in February of 2022 when a train crashed into his car at a rail crossing. “He was a humble, respectful, loving and beautiful soul,” Maxine Lloyd, Patterson’s mother, said through tears at the trial. “He was excited to become an adult, 18.
He never made it” Smith accepted a plea deal in a courtroom packed with Patterson’s friends and family. The deal includes six months of detention, 12 months of house arrest and five years of unsupervised probation. Smith will serve six months in the Anne Arundel County Detention Center and the remainder of the sentence under house arrest.
Assistant State’s Attorney Carolynn Grammas played videos of the crash that showed Smith violated MTA’s light rail rules and regulations when he failed to stop for a full 30 seconds to allow a gate blocking the intersection to come down. Smith stopped the train for three seconds and proceeded through the rail crossing before the light indicated that the gate was down. Patterson was driving a 2003 Honda Accord east on Maple Road around 9 a.
m. when he entered the crossing and the train struck his car. Additionally, Grammas showed that certain lights signal to train operators when the gate is fully down, but Smith proceeded through the intersection before the light showed it was safe.
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