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Melbourne, Florida resident Janice Martina Mason, 29, was convicted on Friday, May 19 of voluntary manslaughter after she ran over Sharisse Denise Carr, 26, on the Baltimore-Washington Parkway, left her to die, and then tried to pull a fast one on investigators.
On Nov. 24, 2021, US Park Police officers responded to a stretch of the Parkway near Route 197, where there were reports of a body lying facedown in the shoulder of the road, surrounded by a pair of cellphones, one of which belonged to Mason.
Later that day, after the body was found, Mason reached out to police to advise that she had lost her phone on the parkway and it had been thrown out of a Nissan during an argument with the victim.
She falsely claimed that she was driving her victim and a second woman to Laurel and pulled over to the side of the road and ordered them out of the car. Mason also confirmed that one of the recovered cellphones belonged to her and the other to Carr.
During the investigation, detectives spoke with Mason’s mother in her Washington, DC home - where Mason claimed to have been staying - and were given consent to search her phone and a black Nissan that was used to drive the friends home.
While at the DC home, investigators noticed a black Ford Expedition parked down the street with the tag “JANICE.”
Investigators subsequently determined that Mason had been driving that truck on the day the body was found, not the Nissan, and it had visible damage to the hood, front grill, and passenger’s side running board.
After changing her story and flip flopping on several key details, Mason was arrested and charged accordingly. She was convicted on the voluntary manslaughter charge, though the jury couldn’t reach an accord on a second-degree murder charge.
When she is sentenced, Mason faces a maximum term of up to 15 years in prison. Her next court appearance is scheduled for August.
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