William Addison Beach, 43 of Grasonville, was sentenced in the Queen Anne’s County Circuit Court to 7 years in prison after entering a guilty plea to two counts of reckless endangerment stemming from a shooting that occurred in Grasonville in January of 2015.  Beach was ordered to serve 5 years in the Division of Corrections on the first count and received another 2 years to serve in the second count.  Beach also faces a violation of parole hearing in the future in which a lengthy period of incarceration may be added to the current sentence he is serving.

On January 8, 2015 Deputies from the Queen Anne’s County Sheriff’s Office responded to a neighborhood in the Grasonville area for a report of shots being fired.  Police learned that a victim who had been shot in the incident was transported to the Grasonville Emergency Room with potential life threatening injuries.  The man survived the injuries.

An investigation that spanned several months, involving multiple jurisdictions and police agencies, resulted in the arrest of several individuals that were responsible parties in the drive-by style shooting, Beach being one of these individuals.  Beach was on parole for an unrelated crime at the time of the shooting and will face additional hearings in the future for the parole violation.

State’s Attorney Lance Richardson prosecuted this case and commended the Detectives from the Queen Anne’s County Sheriff’s Office for their diligent work in this case.  Mr. Richardson stated “crimes of this nature can not, and will not, be tolerated in this community.  This was a lengthy and complicated investigation to piece together. If not for the efforts of the detectives, primarily Detective Chase Armington, in this case the individuals responsible for this shooting may never have been brought to justice.  Getting this individual off the streets for committing a violent crime in our community was a collaborative effort between the Sheriff’s Office and my Office, which I will add work hand in hand in every major case that takes place in Queen Anne’s County.”

Following his release from prison, Beach will be placed on 5 years of supervised probation through the Division of Parole and Probation.