Albany

An irked judge gave Edward Leon the maximum 10-year prison sentence Thursday — and said he wished he could give him more time — for lying to a federal grand jury about his whereabouts on the morning a fire killed four people and severely injured a young girl.

Senior Judge Gary Sharpe all but directly told Leon, 43, of St. Johnsville, that he believed the defendant was involved with setting the pre-dawn May 2, 2013, blaze at 38 Hulett St. in Schenectady. Leon was not charged with the crime but he is now a suspect.

The inferno killed David Terry, 32, and three of his children, Layah, 3, Michael Terry, 2, and Donovan Duell, 11 months. Another child, Sa'fyre Terry, who was 5 at the time, suffered burns to 75 percent of her body.

"Your behavior is despicable. You're despicable," Sharpe told Leon. "If there was any way I could sentence you to more than the advisory guidelines here, I would do it but we're limited by the statutory maximum."

Terry was planning to marry Leon's ex-girlfriend, Brianne Frolke, a scenario prosecutors believe sent Leon into a rage. In the days before the fire, Leon repeatedly threatened Terry's life in chilling text-messages, one of which called Terry a "dead man walking."

Leon, who falsely claimed to a grand jury and police that he was not in Schenectady at the time, later admitted to being within 50 feet of the fire.

A jury in November took one hour to convict Leon of two counts of making false statements to a grand jury in 2013.

On Thursday, Sharpe told the defendant he was under no obligation to speak.

"What would you like to tell me?" the judge asked Leon.

"That the only thing I actually did do was lie before the grand jury testimony," Leon answered. "I had nothing to do with anything else. That morning in question I had no idea who was at the place where I saw a fire and I got out of the area. That's about all I have."

The judge wasted no time responding.

"All right, thank you. I believe that about as much as I believe anything you told the police, the grand jury and anybody you spoke to about this back at the time," Sharpe said with a tone of disgust. "The conduct here is reprehensible."

The judge said he would adopt everything said by federal prosecutors for U.S. Attorney Richard Hartunian, who now say they believe Leon is a suspect in the killings. The prosecutors initially charged Robert Butler of Saratoga Springs with the arson, which carried the possibility of the death penalty, but dropped the case when evidence surfaced against Leon.

Sharpe told Leon he could not sentence him to more prison time because of the statutory maximums under the law for perjury, but that he would give Leon the maximum number of years — "all of which you deserve for the conduct that you engaged in and the harm that you caused."

At the start of sentencing, First Assistant U.S. Attorney Grant Jaquith told the judge: "Your honor, the defendant's deception was deadly."

The prosecutor said Leon lied to police in St. Johnsville, to Schenectady detectives, to U.S. Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives agents, to the grand jury and then again to federal agents, "all part of the defendant's plan to conceal his plan and avoid suspicion."

Jaquith noted Leon, according to the defendant's own version of events, left the scene without calling authorities "all because he did not want anyone to suspect him."

"If the defendant did anything besides leave a father and young children to die, perhaps they could have gotten out, too," he said, calling Leon's actions "the most severe perjury possible."

Leon's attorney David Gruenberg had asked for a 5-year sentence, saying his client's action caused no significant delay in the arson investigation.

"The judge obviously felt strongly about the case and felt very strongly about Mr. Leon and sentenced him to the maximum time he could sentence him to," Gruenberg told the Times Union after the sentencing.

Elizabeth Dolder, the sister of Terry, shed tears while speaking to reporters outside the courthouse. At one point, she needed to stop and compose herself before speaking. "My family is dead. They're dead and they are never coming back. Why would you lie on top of it and cause us to not get justice?" she asked. Dolder, who is Sa'fyre Terry's guardian, noted that Leon once referred to her late brother as a coward in a TV interview.

"Who's really the real coward? He is. He can't accept responsibility for his own actions," Dolder said.

She said she was pleased Leon received the maximum sentence, adding, "We're safer."

rgavin@timesunion.com • 518-434-2403 • @RobertGavinTU