A teen accused of taking part in a double kidnapping, robbery and rape reacted with indignation Tuesday when he was sentenced to a 40-year prison term for his role in the crime.
"This is nuts!" Brian T. Scott, 19, said to his lawyer shortly after Baltimore County Circuit Judge Robert N. Dugan handed down the sentence, under which Scott could be eligible for parole in 20 years. In an urgent whisper, Scott told the attorney, Jessica Bancroft, that he wanted a new trial.
Scott and an accomplice, Kiheem Malik Taylor, 23, were each charged with 32 counts in the kidnapping and armed robbery of two teens at a light rail station in Timonium and the rape of one of them on Oct. 10, 2008.
The couple, both 17 at the time, were sitting in a car when the two men approached and, at gunpoint, forced the boy into the trunk and the girl into the back seat, where she was made to undress. She was later raped by a masked Taylor in a Cherry Hill park and forced to perform a sex act, said Baltimore County State's Attorney Scott Shellenberger.
In a trial this year, Taylor, a Southern High School graduate and bulldozer driver, was found guilty of eight counts and sentenced Aug. 28 to two consecutive life terms plus 100 years.
As part of a plea arrangement, Scott pleaded guilty to six counts, including kidnapping, robbery with a dangerous weapon and a third-degree sex offense. Scott was less culpable, his lawyer contended, because he persuaded Taylor to stop the rape, as the victim told police. After turning himself in, his lawyer said, Scott gave Taylor up to authorities.
But the judge rejected the defense plea for a lesser sentence for Scott, who has an extensive criminal record, including a previous conviction for robbery. Another case, in which Scott was accused of posing as a police officer while staging the armed carjacking of a doctor outside a Baltimore hospital in 2007, was not prosecuted when the woman declined to cooperate with prosecutors.
In the Timonium case, Scott's conduct was "outrageous," Dugan said. "At a trial, the sentence would have far exceeded what I've imposed. He has gotten far better than he deserves."
Minutes earlier, before his sentence was pronounced, Scott addressed the court. "Nobody is perfect in this world," he said. Then, turning to relatives of the two victims, he said, "I truly apologize for what I've done to you."
Scott took up his lawyer's argument that he was less to blame than his friend. "I tried my best to stop this from happening," he said.
But Shellenberger said Scott was a willing participant in the couple's terrifying two-hour ordeal, and referred to a statement the girl read in court during Taylor's trial in which she said she could not "even begin to describe" the impact of the crime.
"I wish I could sleep through the night," she said. "I wish could walk through a parking lot without being scared. ... I wish I hadn't been raped. I wish I didn't feel violated or disgusting. ... I wish I was OK."
