'I Truly Believed I Was Going to Die': Judge Sentences Driver in Brutal Pikesville Carjacking to 95 Years

TOWSON—When 89-year-old Edna Smith stood up in court Friday to speak about the effects a violent carjacking had had on her life, there could hardly have been a more sympathetic figure.

The retired teacher slowly made her way to the front of the courtroom using a rolling walker, her neck supported by a brace. Last winter, she fell and broke her neck. Sixteen months earlier, she had survived something even more devastating: being run over by her daughter's SUV as it was stolen by armed carjackers.

“I felt the weight of the car crushing my bones, my pelvis, my stomach, my legs,” she said. “ I screamed out in pain and disbelief. And in those moments out in the street, I truly believed I was going to die.”

On Friday, Baltimore County Circuit Judge Robert Cahill sentenced the man prosecutors said was behind the wheel, Darius Wolfe, 21, of Baltimore, to 100 years in prison, suspending all but 95 years, saying Wolfe had shown himself to be "irretrievably depraved and irreparably corrupted.”

"He is a violent young man who will continue to be violent," the judge said.

It was the second time Edna Smith had read her victim impact statement in Cahill's courtroom. She first addressed the court in April during the sentencing of Wolfe's co-defendant, Reginald Belton. This time, the ordeal seemed to take more out of her. She paused several times, struggling to continue.

"I'm sorry," she whispered. "This is so hard."

Edna Smith and her daughter, Valarie Smith, described how a routine task of unloading groceries outside Edna's Pikesville-area home turned into a nightmare on Aug. 21, 2024.

Valarie Smith had just arrived in her red 2018 Acura MDX around 10 p.m. when three masked men approached. Prosecutors said one pointed a handgun at her, and another climbed into the driver's seat. As Valarie fought to stop them from taking her vehicle, she became entangled with the SUV and was dragged as it drove away. Edna had rushed outside after hearing her daughter's screams. She was knocked to the ground and run over. The SUV crushed her lower body.

Edna Smith suffered a fractured pelvis, broken ribs, a badly fractured leg, a broken foot and ankle, and a collapsed lung. She underwent multiple surgeries and can no longer walk without assistance or live independently.

Valarie Smith suffered a brain bleed after striking her head on the curb. She also sustained a fractured toe, nerve damage, extensive abrasions, and seizures, and has spent months in physical, occupational, and speech therapy.

Friday, both women spoke about the physical and emotional impacts of the crime and how the attack continues to shape their daily lives.

Yet neither woman expressed anger nor called for revenge.

Instead, Valarie Smith, who has worked with youth programs in the past, told the judge she sometimes asks herself whether there was something she could have done to steer them onto a different path before they resorted to violence.

Cahill said the victims' grace stood in stark contrast to the brutality of the crime.

"I credit these women for coming into this courthouse time and time again and not expressing an ounce of...malevolence with regard to Mr. Wolfe and his compatriots," he said.

Wolfe was convicted by a Baltimore County jury in March of armed carjacking, two counts of first-degree assault, a firearm offense, and related charges.

His sentencing came after an unusual turn in the prosecution of one of his accomplices.

Belton pleaded guilty earlier this year and admitted he was the gunman during the carjacking. Under his plea agreement, he promised to testify against Wolfe. But when Wolfe's trial began, Belton refused to take the witness stand.

Because Belton violated the agreement, Cahill was no longer bound by the negotiated 25-year sentence. Calling Belton's conduct dishonorable and defiant, the judge instead sentenced him to 75 years in prison.

Police have never publicly identified the third man involved in the attack, and no charges have been filed against him.

Wolfe's attorney, Jeffrey Lawson, called the State's request for a 100-year sentence "outrageous," noting that Maryland's sentencing guidelines recommended between 18 and 55 years in prison. He urged Cahill to consider the trauma that had shaped Wolfe's life.

Social worker Elizabeth Carey, who is employed by the Maryland Office of the Public Defender, testified that Wolfe, who was mostly raised by a permissive father, lacked stability in his home life and moved schools and homes frequently.

In 2020, when Wolfe was 14, she said, he was shot in the face. That same year, two of his brothers were murdered three months apart. Carey said Wolfe suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder stemming from those events but has never received consistent, adequate mental health treatment.

While Wolfe has no adult criminal record, prosecutors argued that his juvenile history showed an escalating pattern of violence.

Assistant State's Attorney Michael Fuller told the court Wolfe had 29 placements in the juvenile justice system, none of which succeeded in changing his behavior. On one occasion, Fuller said, Wolfe attempted to choke an employee at a youth facility. In another incident, he allegedly pointed a gun at a young woman before stealing her phone and credit cards. The State's Attorney's Office unsuccessfully sought to keep that armed robbery case in adult court, but a judge transferred it to juvenile court.

Assistant State's Attorney Ryan Fish argued Wolfe had repeatedly demonstrated "that the only way to keep the people of Baltimore County and Maryland safe is for him to be incapacitated — incarcerated — for as long as possible.”

Fish said Wolfe arranged to sell Valarie Smith's SUV for $500 through Instagram. Before the sale, Fish said, Wolfe recorded himself "joyriding" through Cherry Hill in the stolen vehicle while smoking a blunt, listening to music and having a "grand old time" as the Smith women were being treated at Shock Trauma.

Wolfe said he sent his condolences to the victims and asked Cahill to hand down a sentence that would eventually allow him to continue to be a father to his two daughters and to continue with his life.

Cahill said Wolfe's long history of violence, repeated failures in the juvenile justice system, and willingness to inflict devastating harm on innocent victims left little reason to believe he would ever change.

“This young man was given every chance by the criminal justice system to reform himself, to accept help…and he rejected it at every single solitary turn,” Cahill said.