By Ruben Castaneda
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, December 5, 2005 5:42 PM

Almost a year to the day that a series of arson fires devastated a Charles County housing development, a federal judge today sentenced the Fort Washington man who organized the crime to nearly 20 years in prison.

In federal court in Greenbelt, U.S. District Judge Roger W. Titus sentenced Patrick Walsh to 19 years and seven months in prison. Under federal sentencing guidelines, the judge could have given Walsh, 21, as little as 11 years in prison. But Titus said he enhanced Walsh's sentence in part because of the "horrific" nature of the crime.

"This is someone who must be put away to protect the public for a considerable time," he said.

Titus also sentenced two other men who pleaded guilty to helping set the fires in the Hunters Brooke housing development in Indian Head. Aaron L. Speed, 21, will serve more than eight years and Jeremy D. Parady, also 21, more than seven years.

The fires, set during the pre-dawn hours Dec. 6, 2004, were Maryland's biggest residential arson in memory. Twelve unoccupied new homes were destroyed and 15 others were damaged, officials said.

Authorities originally estimated that the fires caused $10 million in damage, but that was later revised to more than $3.2 million. Each of the three men sentenced today was ordered to pay that amount in restitution.

Judge Titus said the arsons had caused "incalculable damage" to race relations. Many owners of the new homes are African Americans, while the perpetrators are white men, some of whom admitted to racial motivations.

"It's very frustrating to be a lifelong resident of Maryland to know this happened in my state," Titus said. "For those who think that somehow, the color of somebody's skin makes them inferior, get over it."

Three residents of Hunters Brooke, each of whom is black, told Titus during the sentencing hearings that that the arsons have profoundly affected them.

On Sept. 2, a federal jury in Baltimore convicted Walsh, a former amusement park worker, of 35 counts of arson and one count of conspiracy to commit arson.

The three men sentenced today had a variety of motives, a ederal prosecutor said. During Walsh's trial, Assistant U.S. Attorney Donna C. Sanger said Walsh led a Charles County gang called the Family and planned the fires to make a name for the group.

Speed, who worked as a security guard at Hunters Brooke at the time the fires were set, pleaded guilty last June to conspiracy to commit arson.

He said he was driven by anger toward his employer and resentment toward the affluent, educated people who were moving into Hunters Brooke. Speed admitted he encouraged a fellow security guard on duty that morning to leave early and helped set the fires.

Parady pleaded guilty last April to one count of conspiracy to commit arson. Parady, a former probationary member of the Accokeek Volunteer Fire Department, admitted he drove a vehicle from house to house to light the fires.

In a fact statement submitted as part of his plea agreement, Parady said the housing development was targeted "because he knew or perceived that many of the purchasers of the houses in that development were African American."

Walsh, Speed, Parady and two remaining codefendants -- Roy T. McCann, 22, and Michael M. Everhart, 20, who are scheduled to go on trial Feb. 21 -- are all white.