MARINE CPL BRIAN MATHEWS & DATE JENNIFER BOWERS

Marine Cpl. Brian Mathews, 2l, and his date, Jennifer Bower, 24, were killed Thanksgiving night this year when Eduardo Raul Morales-Soiano crashed into their car. Morales-Soriano, illegal alien, had been working as a landscaper in Maryland and had been previously issued four citations for DWI and one involving a single-car accident while DWI. His breathalyzer test for the accident which resulted in the deaths of Brian & Jennifer was measured at .32. Brian was home on leave from Iraq at the time of his death.

Brian Mathews called his mother from the plane Thanksgiving morning, gleefully reporting that Southwest Airlines had let him board first in San Diego and thanked the uniformed Marine over the intercom for his service. It was another small bit of good fortune for the 21-year-old corporal, who was on his way to his Columbia home for Thanksgiving. He had finished eight months of duty in Iraq last year and was looking forward to leaving the military in June. On Thanksgiving night, he had a second date with a woman he had been text-messaging from his post at Camp Pendleton, Calif. After a traditional dinner at his parents' house, he was picked up shortly after 10 p.m. by Jennifer Bower, 24. Ten minutes later, a Nissan Sentra driven by a 25-year-old Laurel man with a blood alcohol level that police say was four times the legal limit slammed into Ms. Bower's stopped Toyota Corolla at a red light on Route 175 at Route 108.
"He felt on top of his world," his mother, Trudy Mathews, said, adding that her son had bought new outfits for the weekend. "He was real happy. Very, very happy. He was going to see his friends, and he had another friend's 21st birthday party on Friday." A spokesman for Howard County police said Eduardo Raul Morales-Soriano, who was not injured, had been charged with two counts of manslaughter while intoxicated and two counts of homicide by motor vehicle. He was being held yesterday at the Howard County Detention Center in lieu of $830,000 bail.