A judge sentenced a man to a year in prison for the crash that killed a White House worker while she walked on a sidewalk near her Fairfax County home.
Luis Merino Berrios, who was 18 at the time of the crash in March 2023, pleaded guilty to reckless driving and received the maximum sentence possible.
He was driving at least 80 mph on Route 1 in the Groveton area when his car struck another car and ran up 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 2 months old.
She attended the University of Maryland and worked for the Coast Guard, specializing in cybersecurity. That led her to a position with what’s known as the White House Office of the National Cyber Director. Her task was creating and implementing a new cybersecurity plan.
As a child, her favorite show was “The West Wing,” and working at the White House every day was her dream job.
Jennings-Jones will be buried at Arlington Cemetery Friday. A conference room at the White House will named in her honor, her husband said.
