Deputy U.S. marshal receives 15 years in prison for shooting

Wednesday, Sept. 14, 2005

A former deputy U.S. marshal will serve 15 years in prison for shooting and killing a 20-year-old sailor in a crowded parking lot on Rockville Pike last fall, a Montgomery Circuit Court judge ruled Tuesday.

Circuit Judge Ann S. Harrington sentenced Arthur L. Lloyd, 54, of Rockville, to a total of 35 years in prison, suspending all but 15 years. A jury convicted Lloyd in June of voluntary manslaughter, reckless endangerment and use of a firearm in a felony. On Oct. 28, Lloyd shot and killed Ryan T. Stowers of Redding, Calif., during an altercation in Mid-Pike Plaza shopping center.

‘‘This has been an enormous tragedy,” Harrington said during the sentencing hearing on Tuesday. ‘‘An enormous tragedy for two families...I doubt there is a single person sitting in this courtroom who hasn’t mentally tried to rewrite history...if only these two men had not encountered each other that evening.”

Lloyd apologized to Stowers’ family, who flew in from California for the sentencing, but maintained that he was acting in self-defense.

‘‘I’m sorry if my reaction was an overreaction...I had no idea who the man was,” Lloyd said.

Lloyd, who had been assigned as a deputy U.S. marshal in federal court, cited an increase in threats against law enforcement officers after the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, as contributing to his reaction during his encounter with Stowers.

‘‘I’m sorry to the family and ask their forgiveness, but there’s not a law enforcement officer in the country who would know when someone attacks them,” Lloyd said, explaining what he believes law enforcement officers must contend with when in public.

Prosecuting attorneys said similar statements from Lloyd, submitted in writing to Harrington, showed that he had a lack of remorse for the crime and that he remained too dangerous to be free.

‘‘Those letters reflect a power of self-deception that is almost pathological,” Deputy State’s Attorney John McCarthy said.

Montgomery County State’s Attorney Douglas F. Gansler (D) said he had hoped Lloyd would have received the maximum possible sentence of 35 years.

‘‘Mr. Lloyd is somebody who blames everybody,” Gansler said. ‘‘He blamed 9⁄11, he blamed racism, he blamed everybody but himself.”

Harrington heard testimony from relatives of both Lloyd and Stowers during the two-hour hearing, as well as witnesses of the shooting who described the effect the killing has had on their lives.

‘‘I don’t think even reaching the verdict and sentencing makes us feel any better,” Ryan’s mother Tricia Stowers told reporters after the hearing. ‘‘God will forgive him. I don’t think we can. We just need to go on now and heal...and it won’t take 15 years.”

Lloyd’s attorneys have said they intend to appeal the verdict based on the judge’s instructions to the jury. Defense attorney Barry Helfand argued during the trial that the jury should have been instructed that Lloyd did not have the duty to retreat from Stowers before shooting because he was a law enforcement officer. Harrington rejected the argument because Lloyd’s case was based on self-defense, not that he was trying to make an arrest as a deputy U.S. marshal.

‘‘I believe that the jury got it wrong,” Helfand said Tuesday. ‘‘The end result is, tragically, Arthur Lloyd didn’t plan this, you know it, the state knows it, everyone knows it. He was reacting.”

According to testimony during the trial and District Court charging documents, Lloyd was driving with his family in a black Ford Expedition the night of Oct. 28 when he became involved in a traffic altercation with Stowers, who was driving a red Chevrolet Camaro. Both men pulled into the parking lot of Mid-Pike Plaza, where a verbal argument escalated into a fight.

At some point, Lloyd, a 28-year veteran with the U.S. Marshals Service, drew a handgun and shot Stowers in the lower right leg.

Stowers used his cell phone to call 911, got into his car and began to drive away. Lloyd fired three shots at the back of Stowers’ car, striking Stowers in the back near his left shoulder. Stowers’ car crashed into the wall of the A.C. Moore craft store. Stowers was taken to Suburban Hospital in Bethesda where he was pronounced dead. Lloyd was treated for a broken thumb and other injuries and released later that night.Lloyd has been held without bond at the Montgomery County Detention Center since his arrest on Nov. 2.