The defense for an Essex man accused of trying to kill his ex-girlfriend’s daughter by setting her house on fire accused Howard prosecutors Wednesday of seeking justice for the girl’s injuries by exaggerating the crime and conjuring up a murder plot.
Scott Allen Pryor, 45, is charged with attempted murder and arson for allegedly breaking into the house of Sheryl Alman, 47, around 7:40 a.m. Nov. 19, 2007, and setting fire to the first floor while her daughter, Breanna Alman, 19, was asleep upstairs with her boyfriend Andrew Lee, 21.
Breanna suffered severe burns to about 40 percent of her body before firefighters rescued her, according to testimony. She spent three months at the Johns Hopkins Burn Center in Baltimore City where she underwent 14 surgeries to remove the burned skin.
Pryor’s attorney Benjamin Sutley argued Wednesday that prosecutors were seeking to justify Breanna’s suffering by charging Pryor with attempted murder in a case that really amounts to a malicious burning.
He said Pryor never intended to kill anyone when he ignited the new furniture his ex-girlfriend bought after breaking off their relationship and kicking him out.
“I think he came in angry and spiteful and specifically wanted to burn the furniture that was ‘out with old and in with the new’ symbolic to Ms. Alman,” Sutley said during closing arguments before Howard Circuit Judge Diane Leasure.
“The mere fact that Breanna sustained these injuries does not mean he intended to kill her. … This is a case where the injuries to the victim cry out for much greater justice than what the crimes are.”
But prosecutor Stacy Mayer said Pryor had plotted to kill Breanna because she disapproved of his relationship with her mother.
“He was going to get rid of Breanna, make sure the home is gone and [Alman] has nothing left, so she has to come back to him,” Mayer said.
Pryor knew Breanna’s morning schedule and would have seen her car parked outside and her shoes next to the front door while he was dousing the first floor in gasoline, she said.
“If he only wanted to burn down the home, he would have gone upstairs to make sure no one was home,” Mayer said.
“He could have done no more damage if he’d dropped a bomb on the top of that house.”
Leasure is expected to deliver the verdict today. Pryor faces up to life in prison.
