La Plata, MD – A Waldorf man who set his girlfriend’s townhouse on fire in 2013 and convicted by a Charles County Circuit Court Jury Sept. 16, 2014, was sentenced by Judge Helen J. Harrington to 30 years in prison with all but 10 years suspended Monday, Dec. 8.
Timothy Darrell Henson, 56 of Waldorf, spent much of his sentencing claiming he hadn’t been properly represented.
Harrington told the defendant he accepted the Public Defender’s Office help, refuted the services of Michele Harewood, and then was represented by John Getz.
“I asked the public defender’s office to file for a new trial,” Henson said, “I did it myself and I sent a letter explaining why I had to do it myself.”
“It was still more than 10 days after your trial date,” Harrington told him.
Henson added he also asked his attorney to subpoena the two victims for his sentencing, something Getz admitted he did not do.
“I didn’t feel it would be appropriate,” Getz said.
The defendant argued that the grand jury indictment of his having set fire to his girlfriend’s townhouse at 1752 Brightwell Court in Waldorf had the wrong date of Nov. 13, 2013. Charles County Assistant State’s Attorney Jeremy Widder countered that the date was corrected in pre-trial motions and Getz agreed it was on the record.
Henson also maintained that the jury couldn’t convict him of arson as the Oct. 30, 2013 fire “didn’t burn nothing but the rug on the kitchen floor.”
Henson even went as far as to assert that the state had tampered with the evidence and the video shown during the trial of Henson in the back seat of the police cruiser spewing a steady stream of profanities which incriminated him in the jury’s eyes.
Harrington demonstrated immense patience in the wake of the defendant’s often rambling assertions, even when he charged that “this court does not respect the law that defines us, because if it did, I wouldn’t be standing here,” he said.
“While I’m willing to consider your argument, I don’t agree with your interpretation of the law,” Harrington told him, denying his request for a new trial..
Listing Henson’s long line of previous felonies dating back to 1978, when he was sentenced to serve seven years for armed robbery, Widder detailed that Henson was also found guilty of armed robbery with a deadly weapon in 1984 and continued to be charged with various offenses from 2003 through 2008 and then again in 2013 when the first-degree arson charge was brought. He asked the court to sentence the defendant to 15 years.
Even as Henson sought to disrupt the state’s argument, Widder pointed out that Henson was remorseless and sought to blame everyone, his defense attorneys, the court and the state for his actions.
“He wants to blame everyone except the person who poured gasoline on the floor of his girlfriend’s townhouse and lit the matches,” Widder said.
Getz asked the court to consider that Henson faced severe depression and alcoholism and the combination served to land him in jail and requested that the court allow his client to get treatment as part of his sentence.
Harrington said she would consider that, but it would “be a while.”
Sentencing Henson to 30 years with all but 10 suspended, she said he would get credit for 415 days already served. She said upon his release he would be placed on five years of supervised parole, submit a DNA sample and that he would be required to attend drug and alcohol counseling and receive a mental health evaluation. She also said he was to have no contact with the victims, adding that he would be eligible for parole in five years.
Contact Joseph Norris at joe.norris@thebaynet.com