Office of the State's Attorney

Worcester County, Maryland

News

On Friday, October 28, 2022, Stas Urbanski-Hughes, age 20, of Frankford, Delaware, was the second of 2 co-defendants to be sentenced for his convictions on 2 counts of first-degree assault and 2 counts of reckless endangerment. Urbanski-Hughes pleaded guilty to the charges on January 5, 2022. The Honorable Brian D. Shockley of the Worcester County Circuit Court sentenced Urbanski-Hughes to serve 35 years in the Division of Corrections and suspended all but 13 years of the sentence, 
...

On Friday, October 21, 2022, Bruce William Travers, age 38, of Berlin, Maryland, was sentenced to serve a total of 105 years in prison for his conviction on 3 counts of sex abuse of a minor and  3 counts of manufacturing child pornography. Travers pleaded guilty to these offenses on July 12, 2022 and the Honorable Brian D. Shockley of the Worcester County Circuit Court ordered a psycho-sexual evaluation prior to sentencing. At sentencing, the Court suspended 56 years of the sentence, meaning...

On September 27, 2022, Jon Kaleb Michael Gray, age 35, of Bishopville, Maryland, was sentenced to serve 15 years in the Division of Correction for his conviction on 2 counts of negligent homicide under the influence. Gray entered a guilty plea to those offenses on August 5, 2022. The Honorable Thomas C. Groton III, retired judge of the Worcester County Circuit Court, ordered Gray to serve 10 years on the first count, and 5 years on the second count consecutively, with 5 years suspended and 3...

On September 8, 2022, Christopher Dale Miller, Jr., age 38, of Ocean City, Maryland, was sentenced to serve 20 years in the Division of Correction for his conviction on charges of armed robbery and related offenses. Miller was found guilty of all charges by a Worcester County jury after a trial was held on April 12, 2022. The Honorable Beau H. Oglesby of the Worcester County Circuit Court, who imposed the sentence, credited Miller with 406 days of time served and ordered him to pay...

On Friday, September 2, 2022, Wayne Eugene White, age 46, of Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia, was sentenced to serve 20 years in the Division of Corrections for his conviction on the charge of rape in the second degree, to which he pleaded guilty on June 9, 2022. The Honorable Brian D. Shockley of the Worcester County Circuit Court, who imposed the sentence, suspended all but 10 years of incarceration and placed White on 3 years of supervised probation upon release. White must also submit a DNA...

On August 25, 2022, Cody Jolley, age, 32, of Snow Hill, Maryland, was sentenced to 4 consecutive life sentences plus 75 years in the Division of Corrections for his conviction on the charges of 4 counts of rape in the second degree, 2 counts of sexual abuse of a minor, sexual solicitation of a minor, 2 counts of sex offense in the 3rd degree, attempted rape, and 2 counts of sex offense in the 4th degree. He was found guilty by a jury after trial in the Worcester County Circuit Court on May...

On August 14, 2020, Larry Kendall, age 45, of Elkton, Maryland became the last of 3 co-Defendants to be sentenced for the crime of second-degree rape by the Honorable Beau H. Oglesby in the Worcester County Circuit Court.  Kendall, as well as co-Defendant Kyle Davis, age 22, also of Elkton, were both sentenced to serve 20 years in the Division of Correction.  The third co-Defendant, Damien Shiel, age 24 of Baltimore, was sentenced to serve 20 years in the Division of Correction with all but...

The Office of the State’s Attorney for Worcester County has once again earned the highest conviction rate in the State of Maryland for the prosecution of alcohol and drug-related driving offenses, as 2019 data released by the University of Maryland’s National Study Center for Trauma and EMS reveals. The same study, published on August 8, 2020, determined that Worcester County prosecutors had handled 841 DUI/DWI offenses from May 2019 through May 2020, and had secured an impressive 92.7%...

On July 10, 2020, Bryan Lee Wersten, age 32, of Berlin, Maryland, was sentenced by the Honorable Brian D. Shockley to a term of 10 years’ imprisonment, with all but 4 years suspended, in the Division of Correction.  Following his release, Wersten will be on supervised probation for a period of 5 years.  Wersten was previously convicted of homicide by motor vehicle while impaired by a controlled dangerous substance on February 28, 2020.  Prior to sentencing, the State filed a notice with the...

On June 29, 2020, James “Troy” Durham., age 52, of Pocomoke City, Maryland, was sentenced by the Honorable W. Newton Jackson to a term of 7 years’ imprisonment in the Division of Correction.  A Worcester County jury previously found Durham guilty of second-degree assault after a trial was held on January 7, 2020. Durham, formerly a sheriff’s deputy in Somerset County, will also be prohibited from possessing a firearm as a result of the conviction. 

The charges stem from an altercation...

Pages