A Silver Spring man who murdered a man in his recreational vehicle during a botched robbery was sentenced Wednesday to life in prison plus 20 years, the county prosecutor’s office announced Thursday.
Jurors in February convicted Lloyd Patrick Walters, 52, of first-degree murder for killing Todd McDonough Pruitt, 63, on Sept. 6, 2017.
Walters, who prosecutors labeled “a lethal and remorseless career criminal,” was shot and wounded by Pruitt during an apparent scuffle, according to testimony in the case.
Citing the nature of the murder and Walters’ previous criminal record, the county’s top prosecutor called for the maximum sentence of life plus 20 years.
“The defendant has shown himself to be beyond the possibility of rehabilitation,” State’s Attorney John McCarthy wrote in a memo.
A defense attorney for Walters declined comment Thursday.
Walters stumbled into a county police station the morning Pruitt was killed with a gunshot wound to his abdomen, according to prosecutors. Police reports said that as officers provided medical assistance, Walters said, “That was me that shot the man in the trailer.”
Police found Pruitt’s body on the sofa of a recreational vehicle at 14016 Old Columbia Pike, near a Burtonsville high school, according to court records.
Investigators tracked down an associate of both men who had told Walters that Pruitt recently inherited a large amount of money and told him where Pruitt lived, according to charging documents.
Cellphone records show Walters’ phone near the crime scene, and a search of the RV found a large sum of cash.
Over the past three decades, Walters has been convicted of drug possession and distribution, breaking and entering, and battery, among other crimes. He was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison for felony firearm possession in 2001.
“For the defendant, incapacitation is the last remaining deterrent which this court can employ, given the defendant’s total lack of amenability to rehabilitation,” McCarthy wrote.
“For others in our community who would consider murdering someone with a handgun after leading a life of crime, this Honorable Court must send them an unmistakable message: they will spend the rest of their natural lives in our prisons,” McCarthy wrote.
Charlie Wright can be reached at charlie.wright@moco360.media
