State v. Melvin Edward Johnson, C-08-CR-18-000580
LA PLATA, MD—Tony Covington, State’s Attorney for Charles County, announced that on Thursday, February 20, 2020, Charles County Circuit Court Judge Amy J. Bragunier sentenced Melvin Edward Johnson, 63, to 20 years in prison for Home Invasion, First-Degree Assault, Attempted First-Degree Arson, two counts of Second-Degree Assault, Reckless Endangerment and related charges. He also received an additional 35 years of suspended time and will be on unsupervised probation for a period of five years upon release.
On July 1, 2018, officers responded to a residence in the 3300 block of Old Washington Road in Waldorf for a report of a home invasion and violation of a peace order. Upon arrival, officers discovered victim Agnes Reed, who was soaking wet and had a strong odor of gasoline emanating from her clothing. They also observed a portion of the residence’s driveway actively engulfed in flames. Officers were able to make contact with multiple people who were inside of the house at the time of the incident. They reported that Johnson forcefully broke into the residence by smashing a sliding glass patio door, then rushed into the residence and began throwing gasoline on Reed. He proceeded to pour gasoline throughout the house, including a bedroom located towards the back of the house. Johnson was able to successfully ignite a fire in the bedroom, scorching the carpet. A physical confrontation ensued after male occupants of the house tried to restrain Johnson; however, Johnson was eventually able to escape outside. While outside, Johnson lit a cup of gasoline on fire and attempted to throw it onto Reed; however, he hit the driveway instead. At the time of the incident, the residence was occupied by four people. Reed also had an active peace order against Johnson ordering him to have no contact with her.
At sentencing, Assistant State’s Attorney John A. Stackhouse addressed the judge, “When you look at this case in a vacuum, it really is a dangerous and vicious thing to do.” He furthered, “This is a shocking thing to do. She’s lucky that she wasn’t ignited. I don’t know how she would’ve survived that. It was just wildly out of control.”
Sentence
• First-Degree Assault of Agnes Reed
o 20 Years
• Second-Degree Assault of George Toye
o 598 Days Credit Time Served
• Second-Degree Assault of Kelvin Dickens
o 10 Years Suspended Consecutive to Other Counts
• Reckless Endangerment Ralph Sargent
o 5 Years Suspended Consecutive to Other Counts
• Home Invasion
o 20 Years Concurrent to Other Counts
• Attempted Arson
o 20 Years Suspended Consecutive to Other Counts
• Peace Order Violation
o 1 Year Credit Time Served
• Malicious Destruction of Property
o 60 Days Credit Time Served
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