LA PLATA — The driver in a December 2024 police chase that ended in a deadly crash in La Plata will spend 38 years in prison for the death of a 16-year-old passenger.
Dominick Jermaine W. Hawkins, 19, was sentenced in Charles County Circuit Court for felony murder, the Charles County State’s Attorney’s Office announced. Circuit Judge H. James West also ordered five years of supervised probation after his release, which reported that a probation violation could expose him to a life sentence. Assistant State’s Attorney Cody Ballard prosecuted the case.
The victim, Baxter O’Henry Hubbard, died two days after the crash.
A robbery, a chase and a red light
The case began early on Dec. 3, 2024, with a gas station robbery in King George County, Virginia. Hawkins and another person fled from police into Maryland at speeds police estimated at about 120 mph.
Officers laid down stop sticks, and the car hit two sets but kept going, according to that report. In La Plata, Hawkins ran a red light near Port Tobacco Road and northbound U.S. Route 301. The stolen car he was driving struck an SUV, crossed the median, went into trees and hit a guardrail. The SUV’s driver survived.
The Chronicle reported the morning of the crash that two robbery suspects had been taken into custody after the multistate pursuit. Days later, the Maryland Attorney General’s Independent Investigations Division announced that a juvenile passenger in the fleeing car had died at a hospital, withholding the name under juvenile privacy laws.
What felony murder means
Under Maryland law, a killing committed during certain serious felonies can be charged as first-degree murder even when the defendant did not intend to kill anyone. The doctrine can apply even when the person killed was riding with the defendant. First-degree murder carries a maximum penalty of life in prison.
The officers were cleared
The pursuit itself drew scrutiny. Because police were chasing the car when it crashed, the Attorney General’s office investigated the officers involved, La Plata Police Department Officer First Class Jacob Shuar and Cpl. Tommy Johnston, the Chronicle reported at the time. The division later released body-camera footage from the incident.
In June 2025, Attorney General Anthony G. Brown announced that no charges would be filed against the officers.
That left the criminal case focused on the driver. With the sentencing, the prosecution of Hawkins in the crash comes to a close in Circuit Court, though he can still seek appellate review or a sentence modification under Maryland rules.
The sentence is the second 38-year term handed down in a Charles County murder case covered by the Chronicle in less than two years. In January 2025, a Charles County man received the same term in an unrelated killing.
