Driver Convicted in Fatal Hit-and-Run on Baltimore Washington Parkway

A Hyattsville man was convicted Wednesday in the fatal hit-and-run crash that killed a man and injured his fiancé.

Earl Howard Teeter Jr., 73, was found guilty of operating a vehicle without due care. He pled guilty to failing to stop after driving a vehicle involved in an accident resulting in death.

At 9 p.m. on Feb. 1, Teeter was reportedly driving north on the Baltimore Washington Parkway when he struck and killed Rick Warrick, 38, of Washington, D.C., and injured Warrick’s fiancé.

Warrick was changing on a tire on the side of the road and his fiancé and a minor male were holding flashlights to help. The boy was not injured.

“If not for the exceptional detective work by the U.S. Park Police, this crime would have gone unsolved,” said U.S. Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein.

Investigation of vehicle fragments and parts from the crash led U.S. Park Police detectives to Teeter, who owned a 2004 Toyota Sienna van and had taken the vehicle into a body shop for repairs, where the vehicle was seized.

Teeter told detectives he was driving northbound on the Parkway when he hit something as he changed lanes. Teeter also said he had seen a vehicle on the side of the road, but was unsure what he had struck.

Teeter faces a maximum sentence of 6 months in prison for each of the two offenses. Magistrate Judge DiGirolamo has scheduled sentencing for January 20, 2016.