A Laurel business owner with a history of arson convictions has been charged with intentionally burning down his home over an estate battle with his deceased wife’s family.
Federal agents charged Scott Wilson, 51, with arson in connection with a Halloween fire that badly damaged the single-family home on the 7200 block of Mink Hollow Road in Howard County.
Wilson has denied setting the fire on Oct. 31, 2008. But federal agents said they had a threatening voice mail message from Wilson — left months before the blaze — saying to “kiss Mink Hollow goodbye.”
Wilson has several arson convictions during the late 1970s and early ’80s, including for setting fires to commercial buildings, vacant dwellings and a vehicle.
Wilson’s wife, Sarah Manning, a former treasurer of the Maryland Recyclers Coalition, was listed as the owner of the home on Mink Hollow. She and Wilson owned Subtractions, a computer and electronics recycling company.
Manning died in December 2007, and Wilson and the Manning family have been in a legal battle over ownership of the property and her estate. Before the fire, the home was valued at about $350,000, according to Maryland property records.
On Oct. 31, around 8:30 a.m., Howard County fire crews responded to the blaze and found Wilson inside his Jeep Cherokee, according to charging documents filed by special agents for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
Wilson told authorities the fire started in the kitchen, and then he attempted to move the Jeep. A police officer tried to enter the vehicle to stop him but Wilson continued to drive, narrowly missing a firefighter before glancing off a fire truck, agents said. The police officer injured his hand.
Wilson was charged with assault and several traffic violations, according to court documents.
Fire marshals determined that the fire was intentionally set with an accelerant in different spots around the house. It was the second fire on the property in less than two years.
After the second fire, Wilson began living at the warehouse location of his business in Laurel. He got into a dispute with a night watchman at the property, police said, and on Nov. 28, the security guard’s Ford pickup was set on fire.
