DWI HIT PARADE: Cesar Hernandez-Chacon got an easy plea deal for DUI from Richard Fritz in 2016, but the Grim Reaper didn’t forgive when he crossed the center line of Rt. 5 in a new booze cruise and hit another pickup head-on

DWI HIT PARADE: Cesar Hernandez-Chacon got an easy plea deal for DUI from Richard Fritz in 2016, but the Grim Reaper didn’t forgive when he crossed the center line of Rt. 5 in a new booze cruise and hit another pickup head-on

PARK HALL, MD. Convict St. Mary’s Sheriff Steve Hall reports that both alcohol and speed caused a head-on crash that took the life of a Dameron resident on Friday, January 27, 2023. The at-fault driver, Cesar Leonel Hernandez-Chacon, (DOB 1/20/1977) of 49595 Diamond Lane, Dameron, Md, was previously arrested for DUI in 2016. In that arrest, Hernandez-Chacon was charged with driving while impaired when he was stopped by St. Mary’s Sheriff’s Department Deputy Matthew McCuen as he operated a Toyota SR5 on Rt. 235 at Diamond Lane, just a short distance from where he lived. 

In a plea deal with then-St. Mary’s States Attorney Richard Fritz, Hernandez-Chacon entered a guilty plea to DUI and, as part of the deal, was given a verdict of Probation Before Judgement and a fine of $200. The deal included a jail sentence of thirty days in the slammer, all of which was suspended by the plea deal agreed to by Fritz.  

There is a Maryland court record of a free attorney provided by the taxpayers, public defender Maria Doerflinger, hired to negotiate the 2016 plea deal with Fritz on the part of the defendant.

The fatal crash took place when a 1998 Toyota Tacoma operated by Hernandez-Chacon was traveling north on Md. Rt. 5 (Point Lookout Road) at Hermanville Road when the vehicle crossed the center line and struck a Ford F-150 that was in the southbound lane. The head-on crash resulted in both vehicles catching fire. 

For the at-fault driver, it was a final night out for drinking and driving, ending in a fiery inferno for Hernandez-Chacon, trapping him in his truck and killing him, according to Hall.

The driver of the Ford pickup, identified as Kristen Noelle Stefanik-Peters, 35, of Hollywood, Md., was taken to a hospital with reported non-life-threatening injuries.  Stefanic-Peters was charged by St. Mary’s Sheriff’s Department Deputy Robert Chase on August 22, 2022, with knowingly driving her Ford pickup without insurance. Fritz put the charge on the Stet Docket on October 25, 2022. Other traffic violations in Calvert were also for driving without insurance, operating a vehicle with the license plates issued to another vehicle, and not having a registration.