WESTMINSTER, Md. — A Baltimore woman will spend the next nine-years behind bars for driving drunk and killing a 78-year-old man in Westminster.
We first told you of this tragic story back on March 16, 2025.
At the time Carroll County prosecutors hadn't revealed that Lydia Hanson, then 29, was arrested and charged with DUI just one day prior.
Unfortunately, she got behind the wheel again the next day and struck Richard Snyder's car head-on along MD-97.
Snyder left behind a wife of 52-years.
Her blood alcohol level was a .34, which is four times Maryland's legal limit.
The sentencing judge called Hanson's actions "incomprehensible."
“These are the worst facts I have seen in any of these cases," Judge Brian L. DeLeonardo said from the bench. "The day before you were arrested and charged and you would think that would have been a wake-up call to you and it wasn't. The driving was extreme and dangerous, and it was no surprise that someone died. It was really destiny that you would seriously injure or kill someone."
Hanson's lawyers asked DeLeonardo to order only four-years of jail time, for which he rejected.
"The sentence the defendant received is the least of her problems," said Carroll County State’s Attorney Haven Shoemaker. "She must live everyday knowing that she took a life as a result of her extremely avoidable actions.”
As for the Hanson's original DUI case, Carroll County judge Maria Oesterreicher issued a one year suspended prison term.
