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Baltimore riot arsonist gets 4 years in prison

Posted at 7:43 PM, Sep 16, 2015
and last updated 2015-09-16 19:43:10-04

The corner looks bare now, almost clean.

On the surface anyway, the northeast part of the Pennsylvania and North intersection is no longer charred by the scars looting, rioting and fire.

The burned out shell of the CVS was wiped away by demo crews a few weeks ago as some residents looked on, snapped pictures and reflected on the possibilities of new beginnings.

"This is hope,” Leroy Young said, “This is hope. Some cities could have turned their back on this and said CVS, the city could have said no...we are not putting anything back here. I am hoping it is going to stand as a symbol as what was and a symbol of what can be."

But today, one more matter of what was.

The man who burned down the CVS for the world to see on April 27, Raymon Carter, pleaded guilty to all of it Wednesday morning in a federal courtroom

Investigators had Carter on video lighting the fire.

The deal is four years in a federal prison, possibly very far away from Baltimore.

"His plea today should be a message out to anybody who is interested in doing that in the future. That we will use all of our ATF resources, work with our counterparts in the U.S. Attorney’s office to hold those accountable to those acts," said ATF Special Agent in Charge Bill McMullan.

Resources including the use of wanted posters.

The ATF said they were instrumental in gathering tips to find Carter once investigators identified him from the video.

The Feds said the community involvement was key and it is the same kind of cooperation it continues to get on the six other fires from the riots as well as those crude explosive devices set off near police.

"We are making a lot of progress on all of those and there should be arrests coming in the near future on some of those other cases also and again, it is just a message to the community that this will not be tolerated," McMullan said.

Carter pleaded guilty to a federal crime of rioting and the deal is for four years.

If accepted by the court, his sentencing will be in November.

CVS announced last month it will rebuild at the Penn-North location and reopen by the end of the year.