An Essex man armed with a gallon of gasoline had plotted to murder his estranged girlfriend’s daughter when he broke into her Columbia town house and set it ablaze, Howard prosecutors said Tuesday.
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.
Despite an earlier confession to Howard police, Pryor maintained his innocence at the opening of his bench trial Tuesday before Howard Circuit Judge Diane Leasure.
During opening arguments, the attorneys debated whether the facts of the crime amounted to an attempted murder.
“The defendant ultimately admits he’s guilty of arson and burglary. His intent is the only thing in dispute,” said prosecutor Stacy Mayer.
“The question is really: Did he intend to kill Breanna?”
Pryor had time to think about his plan during the drive from his house in Essex to the Columbia house he’d shared with Alman until she kicked him out a month earlier, Mayer said.
He knew Breanna and her boyfriend Andrew Lee, 21, were home when “he coolly poured a gallon of gas on the first floor,” because their cars were parked outside and their shoes sat by the front door, she said.
Pryor’s attorney Benjamin Sutley said the facts don’t prove Pryor intended to kill anyone.
He also objected to Pryor’s confession being admitted into evidence.
Breanna, now 20, testified Tuesday that her last memory from that day is trying to open the front door before she collapsed.
Firefighters pulled her from the house unconscious. She spent weeks recovering from severe burns to about 20 percent of her body at the Johns Hopkins Bayview Burn Center and still has not returned to school.
Lee testified that he couldn’t follow Breanna, because he was blinded by the thick smoke.
“I could hear Breanna screaming,” he testified.
A nearby neighbor, Jose Valdenegro, said he ran to help and caught Lee in his arms from a second-story window.
“He was shaking violently,” Valdenegro said. “It was frantic, absolutely frantic.”
Pryor’s trial is expected to conclude this morning.
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