On Friday a judge sentenced the driver who struck and killed 53 year old reporter Oren Dorrell on H Street NE on June 8, 2018. In accordance with a plea deal to voluntary manslaughter, 47 year old Daryl Grant Alexander was sentenced to six years in prison, followed by five years of supervised release. Alexander, who admitted that he had consumed alcohol and smoked PCP prior to hitting Mr. Dorrell, was apparently heavily intoxicated and not coherent when police removed him from his car. He originally struck Dorrell in the 1100 block of H Street NE, and Dorrell was still under the car when witnesses stopped Alexander at 13th and H Street NE. Bystanders assisted police (reportedly about twenty people total) in lifting the car off the injured Dorrell, who later died from his injuries. Dorrell, who was wearing a helmet as he rode his motorcycle, had been stopped at a light when Alexander hit him from behind. Because Alexander told investigators that he had no memory of hitting a motorcyclist, or driving that stretch of road, he was allowed to enter an
Alford plea. The Washington Post points out Alexander was on probation for a DUI at the time of collision, and USA Today notes that Alexander actually had five prior DUI arrests.
I gleaned the above information from
The Washington Post and
USA Today, which both have stories on the sentencing. Dorrell was a foreign affair reporter for USA Today. He lived with his family in the Trinidad neighborhood.
