Anne Arundel inmate pleads guilty to setting fire at Md. prison

A state prison inmate has pleaded guilty to starting a fire outside the Maryland Correctional Institution near Hagerstown.

Twenty-five-year-old Allan Clark pleaded guilty Thursday in Hagerstown to one count of malicious burning and was sentenced to 18 months in prison. Prosecutors dropped other charges including first-degree arson.

They say Clark used pieces of graphite and components from a light fixture to start a fire inside his cell in June. He then tossed burning material out a window of the medium-security prison and fed the fire with magazine pages, pieces of his mattress and other items.

Clark was convicted in 2008 in Anne Arundel County of first-degree murder. The conviction was recently overturned, and he is awaiting a new trial.

-- Associated Press