Recent Resort-Area Manslaughter Cases Follow Similar Trend

SNOW HILL- Homicide and manslaughter cases are few and far between in the resort area, but a handful in recent years have all followed a familiar theme of essentially a fight gone terribly wrong, including the case of a Baltimore County man sentenced to six years in prison this week for throwing a fatal blow in a fight along Coastal Highway on Memorial Day weekend.

Worcester County Circuit Court Judge Thomas Groton on Wednesday sentenced Darren Beattie, now 22, of Sparrows Point, to 10 years with all but six years suspended after he was convicted by a jury in November on a manslaughter charge. On May 29, a verbal altercation between Beattie and his friends and the victim, Ryan Shupert, 31, and his friends, which began on a city bus, turned deadly when the two groups encountered each other again. Beattie threw a single punch that struck Shupert in the head, ultimately claiming his life, in another case that has become all too familiar in the resort area in recent years.

During his statements at sentencing on Wednesday, Worcester County State’s Attorney Beau Oglesby alluded to other recent senseless fights in the local area that have resulted in fatal consequences.

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