Man sentenced to one year in prison for car crash that killed White House staffer – NBC4 Washington

A judge sentenced a man to a year in prison for the accident that killed a White House staffer as she walked on a sidewalk near her Fairfax County home.

Luis Merino Berrios, who was 18 at the time of the accident in March 2023, pleaded guilty to reckless driving and received the maximum possible sentence.

He was driving at least 80 miles per hour on Route 1 in the Groveton area when his car collided with another car and spun onto the sidewalk, killing 36-year-old Samantha Jennings-Jones, police said.

Jennings-Jones was born in South Korea and adopted by a Maryland couple at two months of age.

She attended the University of Maryland and worked for the Coast Guard, specializing in cybersecurity. This earned her a position in the White House Office of the National Cyber ​​Director, where she was tasked with creating and implementing a new cybersecurity plan.

As a child, her favorite show was “The West Wing” and her dream job was to work in the White House every day.

Jennings-Jones will be buried Friday at Arlington Cemetery. A conference room in the White House will be named after her, her husband said.