GovernmentExecutive.com

Retired U.S. Marshal Arthur L. Lloyd was sentenced to 15 years in prison for shooting Navy Seaman Ryan Todd Stowers to death at the conclusion of a road rage incident in a Maryland shopping plaza outside of Washington, D.C.

Ann S. Harrington, administrative judge for the Montgomery Circuit Court, delivered a 25-year sentence Tuesday, but suspended 10 of the years, according to an Associated Press report.

Lloyd, 54, faced a maximum of 35 years in prison after a jury found him guilty of manslaughter, reckless endangerment and handgun charges. He was found not guilty of first- and second-degree murder charges.

Stowers, a resident of Redding, Calif., came upon Lloyd, who was an active Marshal at the time, in a Rockville, Md., parking lot in a encounter touched off by road rage that escalated into a profanity-laced shouting match heard by more than 40 witnesses. After the two men exchanged blows, Lloyd drew his service weapon and shot Stowers in the leg, witnesses said.

With his wife and children nearby, Stowers, 20, went to his car and attempted to drive away in a manner that Lloyd's defenders say was aggressive and threatening to Lloyd's wife and children who also were present.

Lloyd, a veteran of 28 years in the Marshal Service, then shot at Stowers' car three times, hitting the man once in the back and killing him. Stowers' blood-alcohol concentration was as high as 0.22, a state toxicology report later showed; the legal blood-alcohol driving limit in Maryland is 0.08.

Lloyd's defense lawyers say they plan to appeal because they believe their client was acting as a federal officer during the row and that this issue was not raised during his trial.

Two Years for Six Days

Federal Protective Service Special Agent Charles H. Jackson will serve two years in prison for covering up the wrongdoing of fellow officers that resulted in a man unjustly spending 6 days in jail.

Jackson, 51 was convicted by a jury in June of a charge of falsifying records in a federal investigation. He will begin serving his sentence on Oct. 23, the Associated Press reported Wednesday.

A veteran of nearly 20 years, Jackson was called to the scene to investigate a high-speed chase through San Francisco on Feb. 15, 2003.

Former FPS officers Peter Taoy and John Haire began chasing motorist Jeffrey Petri after he ran a red light. Taoy and Haire falsely claimed that the chase began next to a federal building and that Petri attempted to run over Taoy with his Mercedes-Benz to explain why he shot Petri's car four times. Jackson filed a false report to support their claims.

After security cameras revealed inconsistencies in the statements of Taoy and Haire, the FBI started investigating the incident, and Jackson was reassigned to an FBI office in Phoenix.

Haire and Taoy pleaded guilty in October 2004 to lying about the incident and violating Petri's civil rights. Taoy received an 18-month prison sentence and Hair received six months of home detention.

COMMENTS

• I wonder what happened here? Gun-toting law enforcement personnel are supposed to be screened for problems like impulse control. I know that on the local level they are; one applicant for the L.A. County Sheriff's Dept. was rejected because they found one incident when he was a child where he was mean to an animal. Are the feds not looking out for things like that? GovExec.com reader Posted September 16, 2005 11:10 AM
• I suppose he will be on parole in a couple of years. I didn't figure he would get much out of it. It must have broken the Judge's heart to have to reduce his sentence from 25 to 15, ha. Just think, we give a marijuana user more time in jail than this guy got for what everybody really knows was murder. If this sailor had shot Lloyd under the same circumstances, he would be on death row right now. It is no wonder people are getting more and more fed up with those who are rightfully pegged as "killer cops". Now we can see firsthand the integrity and honesty of the judicial system. What a joke. Charlie Posted September 15, 2005 9:49 PM