An Essex man was not plotting to kill his estranged girlfriend’s daughter who suffered severe burns after he doused her Columbia town house in gasoline and set it ablaze, a Howard Circuit judge ruled Thursday.
Judge Diane Leasure said prosecutors failed to prove Scott Allen Pryor, 45, specifically wanted to kill Breanna Alman, 19, when he broke into the house of his ex-girlfriend, Sheryl Alman, 47, on Nov. 19, 2007, and set fire to the first floor around 7:40 a.m. while Breanna was asleep upstairs with her boyfriend Andrew Lee, 21.
Leasure found him not guilty of attempted murder, but said she “had no difficulty” in convicting Pryor of first-degree arson, burglary, assault and reckless endangerment.
“He did this to get his anger out,” Leasure said in recounting the testimony she considered in her deliberations.
“He did not have that romantic relationship anymore, and by all indications, he wanted to reconcile that and Ms. Alman was not interested.”
Pryor, who appeared emotionless Thursday, could face a total of 105 years in prison at his February sentencing.
Prosecutors had accused him of trying to kill Breanna, now 20, because she was an obstacle in his relationship with her mother.
“This whole thing has been very difficult for us,” Sheryl Alman said Thursday.
“I absolutely think he wanted to kill her, but we are pleased with the outcome. We’re happy the system worked today.”
Alman said her daughter wasn’t present in court, because “it’s just too much for her.”
Breanna didn’t escape the fire and suffered life-threatening burns on 40 percent of her body before firefighters pulled her from the house. She spent several months recovering at the Johns Hopkins Burn Center in Baltimore City and now bears scars.
Lee, Breanna’s boyfriend of two years, testified during the trial that he escaped through a second-story window and could hear Breanna screaming inside.
Pryor’s attorney Benjamin Sutley said he was “not surprised” by the verdict, because Breanna’s horrific injuries did not amount to an attempted murder.
“The injuries were not the crime,” he said. “The crime is what my client intended to do.”
Sutley argued during the two-day trial that Pryor intended only to torch the new furniture that Alman bought after kicking him out of the house.
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