Two Sentenced to 20 Years in Loudon Avenue Fire

Nearly one year after a containing 11 people was set ablaze, the two men responsible have been sentenced to serve 20-year prison sentences.

Santiago Adalpho Gonzalez-Miner and Edvin Giovanni Ceron Reyes each were sentenced in Howard County Circuit Court to two 10-year sentences to be served consecutively for their roles in the fire.

and each pleaded guilty separately to two counts of attempted murder late last year. They were originally  in August on charges including 11 counts of attempted murder and arson, most of which the state dropped in exchange for a guilty plea.

Reyes was sentenced on Jan. 19 to serve two 10-year sentences consecutively in the Department of Corrections.

Gonzalez-Miner received the same sentence Tuesday.

The defendants were also ordered to pay more than $200,000 in restitution for the arson, split between the two of them.

Howard County prosecutors argued that Gonzalez-Miner and his friend Reyes set the  after a session of drinking because Gonzalez-Miner was upset that his wife had left him to live with her boyfriend. Gonzalez-Miner's wife was also Reyes' aunt. The woman and her boyfriend were among 11 people staying in the house at 6345 Loudon Avenue at the time of the fire.

During his sentencing hearing on Jan. 31, Gonzalez-Miner declined to address the court, according to the Howard County State's Attorney's Office.

On Jan. 19, Reyes, however, teared up after the judge ordered him to serve two 10-year sentences in the Department of Corrections, followed by deportation.

“Please let me stay in the U.S.,” pleaded Reyes, an undocumented immigrant for four years.

His attorney said that Reyes was sending income from his landscaping job in Elkridge to support relatives in Guatemala, and Reyes said he would make more money working in the United States to pay restitution.

According to federal law, undocumented immigrants must be deported after serving time.

Upon learning that his sentence would not be amended, Reyes had an apparent change of heart, stating that he would rather go back to Guatemala than serve time.

Judge Lenore Gelfman responded to his request: “In that case, we wouldn’t have to pay for your food, your shelter, your medical bills … but we also wouldn’t be holding you accountable for what you did."

Gonzalez-Miner and Reyes' sentences will be up in 2031, as they were credited with time served; they have been detained since they were indicted in August.