Baltimore resident Luther Trent — a man who plead guilty to setting his ex-girlfriend's home on fire while she was inside — isn't happy with his punishment. Not because the sentence was too excessive, but because it was too light. Yes, you read that right.
Authorities in Baltimore might want to take a look at how they're applying and enforcing the law when even those who benefit from woke prosecutorial decisions aimed at reducing incarceration — rather than crime — are saying they're getting off too easy.
The charge for which Trent entered a guilty plea — first-degree arson — wasn't the only one he faced. As the Baltimore FOX affiliate explains, he was also charged with three counts of attempted homicide due to Trent's ex-girlfriend and roommates being home at the time he burned it down.
As he explained the situation to FOX45:
"I went to the side of the house and poured gasoline on the side of the house,” Trent said. “The love of my life is in Baltimore. I know where she lives at and I can’t even talk to her. Can’t say nothing to her. In my head, it was some Romeo and Juliet type of thing – if I can’t have you, no one can have you, at least in Baltimore.
Following his attempt at Shakespearean tragedy, Trent was apprehended and charged with multiple counts for his serious offense. But, thanks to lenient prosecutorial discretion the likes of which has become all the rage in liberal-run dystopias, Trent served just six months in jail. "Trent was originally charged with 18 felonies, he said, including three attempted-murder charges but ultimately plead down to one arson charge," said FOX45.
So a man can set his ex-girlfriend's house on fire, while she and her roommates are inside, with the admitted intent of ensuring she was unable of being with anyone else, and end up free in six months. The radical left's obsession with "social justice" clearly comes at the expense of any semblance of actual justice. And Trent would agree, despite personally benefitting from the woke policy.
"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. I disrupted somebody’s life. I traumatized somebody because of how I felt in a situation,” Trent explained of his shocking plea deal. “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.”
For its part, the Baltimore City State's Attorney — the embattled Marilyn Mosby (more from Vespa on that here) — didn't return requests for comment from FOX45, and it's no wonder why.
In Baltimore, the lawbreaking are now scolding the law-upholderd rather than the other way around. It's completely backwards and yet entirely on brand for Democrats who continue to undermine the safety of their communities by removing penalties for illegal activity. Manhattan's new D.A. — as Townhall covered here — is implementing similar insanity that will bring even more anarchy to New York's streets.
Even the accused and prosecuted know what lenient plea deals will do to crime. When asked if the way he was prosecuted for burning down his ex's house while she and two others were inside, Trent responded "Oh yes, most definitely."
“That tells that anybody that ‘I can go shoot somebody or I can attempt to shoot somebody, and I’ll be completely fine,” Trent also told FOX45. “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.”
With Baltimore, Manhattan, and large cities across the country embracing prosecutorial lunacy like this, cities are going to get worse before they ever get better. Many have already set all-time or decade-high records for homicides and other violent crime, but woke prosecutors don't seem concerned about doing anything to stem the rise in crime. Instead things will grow more dangerous, some sort of breaking points will need to be reached (hopefully sooner than later), and maybe then law and order will again be upheld. Until then, stories like Trent's are sure to keep happening.