Chris Lange, FISM News
A Baltimore man who pleaded guilty to torching his ex-girlfriend’s home while she and two others slept inside says his shocking plea deal is sending the wrong message to other criminals.
Luther Trent entered a guilty plea to one count of first-degree arson after setting the home of his former girlfriend, Alexis, on fire last May. He was originally charged with 18 felonies, including three attempted-murder charges. Under the plea deal, City State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby approved a 10-year suspended sentence.
At the time of his release, Trent had served less than six months in jail.
“I was just charged with 18 different counts, that was dropped to 10, that was dropped to one. When I shouldn’t be out right now,” Trent said after his release. “I disrupted somebody’s life. I traumatized somebody because of how I felt in a situation. Personally, yes, I want to be out, but principally, no, I shouldn’t be out because I could have done a lot more damage than I did. I was expecting to get time; people who were in that situation, they should expect to get time.”
When asked by a Baltimore Fox News affiliate reporter if his plea deal sends “the wrong message” to other criminals, Trent replied, “Oh, yes. Most definitely.” He added, “That tells anybody that I can go shoot somebody or I can attempt to shoot somebody, and I’ll be completely fine. It would empower me because I would be like, okay, this man just shot somebody, just blew his head off, and he’s just out walking free. I can do anything I want. I can rob somebody. I can shoot somebody. I can do anything I want.”
Alexis said the prosecutor notified her of the plea deal in December “as a professional courtesy,” despite her objections. “I was in shock. I didn’t really know what to feel,” she said. “It doesn’t seem like justice was served. It feels like a political game, but not my justice.”
Trent described pouring gasoline on Alexis’ home and setting it afire while he was under the influence of drugs, referring to his chilling crime as “some Romeo and Juliet type of thing – if I can’t have you, no one can have you, at least in Baltimore.”
“I do take responsibility,” he said. “It wasn’t a sound decision; it wasn’t the best decision I was supposed to take.”
Roya Hanna, a former prosecutor in the state’s attorney’s office hoping to unseat Mosby, said plea deals like this make it difficult for community members to trust the system.
“It is pleas like these that embolden the criminal. It is pleas like these that destroy the city of Baltimore,” Hanna said. “On behalf of Alexis, I’m calling on the state’s attorney’s office to apologize to Alexis.”
A spokesperson from Mosby’s office said the agreement was appropriate based on Trent’s lack of prior criminal history.
“Based on the circumstances of the case and the defendant’s lack of criminal record, we made an offer within the sentencing guidelines to secure a felony conviction and to ensure that the defendant remained under the supervision of the State with a court-ordered stay away from the victim,” the spokesperson said.
Alexis vows to continue speaking out about what she calls “a miscarriage of justice.” “I’m speaking up because I want to get justice for me and I want it changed,” she said.
Baltimore is one of several U.S. cities currently grappling with a surge in violent crime, recently marking the grim milestone of 300-plus homicides for the seventh year in a row.