Former Baltimore Police officer pleads guilty to vehicular manslaughter, avoids jail time

Dillon Mullan

Baltimore Sun

January 17, 2024

A former Baltimore Police officer who sped through a red light and struck and killed a man on a scooter will not serve any jail time after agreeing to a plea deal Tuesday morning for two years of supervised probation.

Alexis Acosta pleaded guilty to vehicular manslaughter for the death of 58-year-old Terry Harrell in June 2022.

Video footage from Acosta’s body camera shows him passing through at least two intersections with red lights and one with a stop sign before striking Harrell, who had a green light and was driving through the intersection of East Biddle Street and North Milton Avenue in East Baltimore.

After the crash, Harrell, a father and grandfather, was taken to the Johns Hopkins Hospital, where he was pronounced dead June 23 of that year.

“While this outcome is understandably difficult for the family of Terry Harrell to accept, this plea still demonstrates the ownership Officer Acosta has taken for his reckless and dangerous actions that resulted in the death of an innocent man,” State’s Attorney Ivan J. Bates said in an email. “Uniform or not, we must all drive on our roads as if our loved ones are in the car next to us. This was a tragedy that could have been prevented.”

Chaz Ball, Acosta’s attorney, did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday evening.

“What [Acosta] took was a father, a brother, a cousin, a pop pop, a best friend and a husband,” Vernia Harrell, Terry Harrell’s wife, said in July 2022.