April 12--Curtis E. Reed, who set his girlfriend's son ablaze after an early-morning altercation last summer, was sentenced Thursday in Ramsey County District Court to 12 years in prison.
The victim, Antoine Willis Jr., then 19, had been asleep when Reed sprayed him with lighter fluid and set him on fire, authorities say.
Willis ran out of the house with a basketball-sized fireball around his head, his mother later told police.
On Thursday, prosecutor Dawn Bakst told District Judge Rosanne Nathanson that Willis had physical and internal scars that Bakst believed he had yet to fully grasp.
"He's afraid to leave the house. He's afraid to take the bus," said Bakst, who described the victim as an adult but still a child in some ways.
Willis attended Thursday's sentencing, but declined to speak to the judge or with reporters afterward. Though he had scarring on the left side of his neck, he appeared in good physical condition, especially in view of the dramatic post-fire images showing him with heavy gauze bandages wrapped around his head.
In a brief statement to the judge, Reed, whose lawyer earlier tried to advance a self-defense argument, said that he was ready to be held accountable for the crime.
"I am terribly sorry," he said as he turned to face Willis. "And I do offer an apology to the family."
According to the charges, Reed and Willis had clashed about 3 a.m. on July 20 when the teenager tried to break up a fight between his mother and Reed in the family's now-former home on the 1300 block of Ames Avenue.
Willis grabbed Reed around the neck as two friends punched the man. "You guys got me, you guys got me," Reed allegedly said. Several witnesses say that Reed then warned: "Don't go to sleep."
The victim and his girlfriend tried to stay awake while Reed sat near them, watching them.
Just before 7 a.m., Willis was awakened by liquid being poured on his head, and he then felt the fire.
He was hospitalized with second- and third-degree burns to his head, neck and torso.
At a pretrial hearing, Reed's attorney, Tyler Bliss, argued that Reed was defending himself against a conspiracy involving Willis and his two friends. He claimed that the friends, who left before Willis was set ablaze, had broken Reed's nose. Reed feared that they might return to kill him.
Nathanson rejected that argument, however, saying there was no case law to support such a theory. She wrote that it "would be an absurd result to allow violent force against a sleeping individual just because the defendant perceived that individual to be a part of a larger conspiracy against him."
Reed then pleaded guilty on March 2 to first-degree assault.
Also in attendance at Thursday's sentencing was the victim's mother, Jodi Ann Stewart. Last November, she pleaded guilty to stealing money donated to her son to help with his recovery. She accompanied her son as he exited the eighth-floor of the courthouse.
Anthony Lonetree --612-875-0041
Copyright 2012 - Star Tribune, Minneapolis
