Key Witness in Torching Case Gets Prison Sentence

A white suspect who became a prosecution witness in the torching of a black tourist will serve no more than 6 1/2 years in prison, and he said Friday that he had little sympathy for two friends he helped put away for life.

“I saw what they done,” 18-year-old Jeffery Pellett said after his sentencing. “They done it and now they’re going to do the time for it.”

Prosecutors said Pellett’s cooperation under a plea bargain helped convict fellow white laborers Mark Kohut, 27, and Charles Rourk, 33, in the attack on Christopher Wilson, a stock brokerage clerk on vacation from New York.

Pellett was sentenced Friday to 22 months in prison for his plea to a state charge of being an accessory after the fact. The sentence will run at the same time as a 6 1/2-year federal sentence he received last month for a plea to aiding an armed carjacking.

“I’m just thankful things have happened the way they have,” said the shaggy haired Plant City teen-ager. “The system works.”

Pellett was arrested five days after the New Year’s Day attack, after his mother tipped authorities. He led police to Kohut and Rourk.

Pellett testified that he followed in another vehicle after the others abducted Wilson at a suburban shopping plaza, then watched when they splashed him with gasoline and set him afire.

Under cross-examination, Pellett admitted that he would lie to protect himself, that he had changed his story several times and that his memory was clouded by heavy drug and alcohol use.

Jurors said after the trial they took little of what Pellett said on face value. They said they were swayed by Wilson’s testimony and his courtroom identification of Kohut and Rourk.

Wilson, who is still recuperating from burns over nearly 40% of his body, sent word to federal prosecutors last month that he was grateful for Pellett’s cooperation and recommended leniency.

Kohut and Rourk were sentenced to life in prison for attempted murder, kidnaping and robbery. They claim they are innocent and that they were set up.