UPDATE 4/19/2024: Tony Covington, State’s Attorney for Charles County, announced that on Wednesday, April 10, 2024, Charles County Circuit Court Judge Makeba Gibbs sentenced Michael Darrell Dukes, 22, to 10 years with all but 18 months suspended in prison for the Gross Negligent Manslaughter of Zkiara Kemp. Dukes will also be on supervised probation for five years.
Dukes entered a guilty plea to the aforementioned charge on February 26, 2024.
On July 8, 2022, officers from the Charles County Sheriff’s Office responded to Maryland Point Road in Nanjemoy after a single vehicle collision. Upon arrival, they discovered that a black Kia Rio crossed the double yellow center lane markings on the road and struck a tree, ultimately catching on fire. Dukes and another passenger were located outside of the vehicle. Victim Kemp was unable to escape the vehicle and was pronounced deceased at the scene. Dukes and the other passenger were transported to a hospital for their injuries. Dukes was treated for life-threatening injuries; however, both he and the other passenger survived.
An investigation into the collision revealed that at approximately 2:18 a.m., Dukes was operating the black Kia Rio with one passenger in the front seat and victim Kemp, the vehicle owner, in the backseat of the vehicle. The Kia Rio crossed the double yellow center lane markings when the roadway turned to the right. The vehicle struck a mailbox post then collided into a tree. Dukes was able to escape the vehicle and help the other passenger out of the vehicle before it caught on fire. However, Kemp was unable to exit. The fire after the collision resulted in a total loss of the vehicle and its contents.
A toxicology report of Dukes detected cannabis and Benzodiazepine present at the time of the incident.
At sentencing, Assistant State’s Attorney Laura Caspar told the judge that Dukes, “purposefully took a drug to alter his mind then got in the car and drove. – This is the very definition of excessive harm, not only to kill someone but to rob their mother of burying her child.” She furthered, “This was not an accident. It could have been prevented by him not using drugs.”
7/8/2024: On July 8. 2022, at 2:18 a.m., officers from the Charles County Sheriff’s Office responded to the 11300 block of Maryland Point Road in Nanjemoy for the report of a single car crash.
A preliminary investigation revealed the driver of a vehicle was traveling on Maryland Point Road when the vehicle left the roadway and struck a tree, catching fire. Two occupants were able to get out of the car but a third person was pronounced deceased on the scene. That person has not been positively identified. The two occupants, a 20-year-old male from Hyattsville and a 21-year-old female from Texas, were transported to a hospital with serious injuries.
Anyone who may have witnessed the crash or who has information relating to it is asked to contact Cpl. R. Brooks in the Traffic Operations Unit at 301-932-3056.
The investigation is ongoing.
