ROCKVILLE, Md. — Larry Nicholson sought out Jacqueline Smith Friday to give her a quick hug and murmur, “I’m so sorry.”

Both had just listened to Douglas Wayne Pryor plead guilty to murdering their children.

Pryor, 30, will serve two consecutive life sentences without parole for killing Alison Munson, Smith’s daughter, and Smithsburg Police Officer Christopher Shane Nicholson on Dec. 19, 2007.

Munson was the mother of Pryor’s children, and was granted a protective order against Pryor only weeks before he killed her.

In addition to the two first-degree murder charges, Pryor also pleaded guilty to four counts of attempted first-degree murder for shooting at four police officers trying to take him into custody the night Munson and Nicholson died. Those convictions each carry life sentences, which will be served consecutively.

“We believe it’s a fair and just resolution,” defense attorney Katy O’Donnell said after Friday’s hearing.

Pryor had faced the death penalty if convicted of Nicholson’s death.

Pryor’s plea Friday came after the judge handling his case, with the trial scheduled to begin May 19, instructed prosecutors and defense attorneys on April 9 to meet with a retired judge to attempt plea negotiations, Washington County State’s Attorney Charles Strong said Friday.

After Judge Dennis Sweeney, retired from Howard County Circuit Court, informed Strong that Pryor’s defense attorneys might accept a plea deal that included a sentence of life without parole, Strong informed the victims’ families.

“I said if life without parole was put on the table, I would take it to the family, present it. I would be guided by their decision. I did not sell it,” Strong said.

Nicholson’s murder was the death-eligible crime, and Nicholson’s family chose a plea agreement over a trial, Strong said.

Larry Nicholson declined to comment Friday, but released a written statement explaining his family’s decision.

“Faced with the unfortunate Political Agenda the State of Maryland has chosen we are forced to ask that Douglas Pryor be placed in the general population in a maximum security State prison for the rest of his life without the possibility of parole,” Larry Nicholson wrote.

As part of the plea agreement, Pryor waived several rights, including the right to seek a modification of his sentence, any attempt to withdraw his guilty plea and the right to apply for review of his sentence by a three-judge panel.

Pryor also agreed to make a statement Friday, which was subject to cross-examination, about Nicholson’s death.

He saw Nicholson’s vehicle in a driveway near his parents’ house, Pryor said.

“Because of what happened with Alison, I didn’t want to live no more,” he said.

He fired up into the sky, Pryor said.

“I was hoping he would fire back and hoping he would hit me,” Pryor said.

What happened next was unbelievable, Pryor said. He stuck his gun out the window of his truck as he was driving past Nicholson’s vehicle. He fired the gun.

“I knew it hit him cause I heard him yell,” Pryor said.

Nicholson had fired at Pryor’s truck. Investigators found two slugs from Nicholson’s gun lodged in Pryor’s truck, Deputy State’s Attorney Joseph Michael said during his statement of facts.

“He hit everything but what I wanted him to hit,” Pryor said.

At the end of his statement, which was limited to discussing Nicholson’s murder, Pryor talked about Munson.

“It’s always about the cop, what about Alison? You never hear anything about her,” Pryor said. He then was cut off by O’Donnell, division chief for the Office of the Public Defender’s Capital Defense Division.

After Pryor spoke of Munson, Jacqueline Smith began sobbing and put her head down on the bench in front of her. Pryor also had his head down as O’Donnell appeared to be comforting him.

A prosecutor during Friday’s hearing detailed Munson’s death. She and Pryor, though estranged, had attended a school Christmas program on Dec. 19, 2007. Though the protective order forbid Pryor to go to Munson’s home, he followed her there and witnesses saw the two go inside, Michael said.

About 9 p.m., there was some type of disagreement.

Investigators later found a large blood stain, covered with an afghan, in front of the television, and a trail of blood into a closet, Michael said. Inside the closet, Munson’s body was wrapped in the comforter from her bed, and a trash can was placed on top of her. She had been stabbed more than 20 times, and had defensive wounds on her hands.

Pryor also left a note, which included a racial slur and was laced with profanity. The note was written on Munson’s CASA safe plan, created for victims of domestic violence.

Munson was 31 when she died.

Pryor left the scene with his children, and went to his parents’ home on Welty Church Road in Smithsburg. On the way, he called a friend, who became concerned Pryor had hurt Munson and called Pryor’s mother.

His mother, Jo Ellen Pryor, called 911. Washington County Sheriff’s Department deputies and Nicholson were dispatched to the Pryor home.

Nicholson pulled into a nearby driveway to wait for backup.

Pryor’s sister-in-law went to the home and got the two children, Michael said. While there for the children, Geri Pryor saw Douglas Pryor. He told her he had done something terrible, and was going down to kill the cop, Michael said.

“He’s coming toward me” was Nicholson’s last radio transmission, Michael said.

A manhunt began, and as Maryland State Police Sgt. David Harper drove into the area, Pryor fired at his vehicle from a distance. Later, Trooper First Class Lee Cain and others also were shot at, with several bullets going over their heads.

When he was finally cornered at the Ringgold Meeting House, the Special Response Team’s armored vehicle began ramming Pryor’s truck.

Pryor fell out of the truck, and from 6 feet away, shot at Hagerstown Police Department Lt. Mike King and Deputy First Class Todd Crowder. Both men had been sitting in the front of the vehicle, Michael said.

Pryor was taken into custody after Washington County Sheriff’s Department Lt. Mark Knight shot him from more than 100 yards, Michael said. He also was shot by another officer from inside the armored vehicle.

Pryor was wounded in the chest, hand and upper leg, Michael said.

Friday’s hearing became tense during the sentencing phase, when victims were allowed to speak.

Munson’s stepfather, Steven Smith, stood at the front of the courtroom and looked at Pryor.

“We wanted you to die, it’s a known fact,” Smith said. He then turned, looking at Pryor’s family, including mother and father.

“We wanted your son to die,” Smith said. “I feel sorry for you people.”

One of the men sitting with Pryor’s family could be heard saying, “Don’t feel sorry for me.”

The judge stopped Smith before he could say much more.

Speaking to the judge before he was sentenced, Pryor called Dec. 19, 2007, “the worst night I ever had.”

“I am sorry. I can’t say how sorry I am. It won’t never go away,” Pryor said, his voice shaking. Much of the rest of Pryor’s statement was incoherent.

Victims’ families mixed on plea agreement

“Be careful who you pick,” Tori Landers said as she talked about her late stepsister, Alison Munson, and the man who killed her.

Munson was stabbed to death by Douglas Wayne Pryor, her estranged boyfriend and father of her children.

Pryor will serve life without parole for her death, with a consecutive sentence of life without parole for shooting and killing Smithsburg Police Officer Christopher Shane Nicholson.

“The hardest thing with Doug is knowing he was someone who sat at your table, took holidays with you, held your kids, danced at your wedding,” Landers said.

Landers and Munson grew up together, and both graduated from Berkeley Springs (W.Va.) High School in 1995, Landers said.

Munson was homecoming queen and voted Best All-Around by their senior class, Landers said.

They then grew up and had children.

“She was a beautiful mother, and fun,” Landers said.

Munson’s mother, Jacqueline Smith, shares custody of the 10-year-old boy and toddler girl with Pryor’s brother and sister-in-law.

Landers was not in support of Friday’s plea agreement, and would have preferred the state seek the death penalty for Pryor.

“I can’t find a part of me that feels sorry for him,” she said.

Munson’s mother and stepfather spoke adamantly against the plea bargain Friday.

“Are we telling every person out there that has no regard for life that it’s OK,” Munson told the judge.

“I don’t agree the state vigorously pursued the death penalty issue,” Steven Smith, Munson’s stepfather, said after the hearing.

Jacqueline Smith also talked about her daughter Friday, calling Munson a “kind, loving person.”

Munson called her almost every day, and Smith was there when all three of her grandchildren were born.

She and a prosecutor on Friday showed the judge pictures of Munson as a high school student and of Munson’s children.

Her toddler granddaughter looks just like Munson, Smith said.

“She was born to be a mother,” Smith said of her daughter.

One of Munson’s children died as an infant and is buried in the cemetery at the Ringgold Meeting House, where Pryor was taken into custody after killing Munson and Nicholson.

Even though Munson had to take out a protective order against Pryor, “You don’t tend to think they’re going to do this. You don’t think he’s going to murder her. You’re trusting this person,” Smith said.

While Munson’s family opposed the plea agreement, Nicholson’s family agreed with extending the plea offer to Pryor, Washington County State’s Attorney Charles Strong said.

In a written statement, Nicholson’s father said while he asked prosecutors to withdraw the death penalty, removing the death penalty in Maryland would be a “tragic mistake, and would only serve to encourage criminals to more violence.”

Larry Nicholson blamed Maryland’s “unfortunate political agenda” for the situation in which he asked the death penalty be withdrawn.

The House of Delegates and the Senate recently passed legislation limiting the death penalty to first-degree murder cases with biological or DNA evidence, videotaped voluntary confessions or video linking defendants to a crime — said to be one of the most restrictive death penalty laws in the country.

Gov. Martin O'Malley has said he will sign the bill.

Earlier this month, the Attorney General’s Office said it was unclear whether the bill would apply to murders committed before the bill is signed for which the defendant has not been convicted.

However, Assistant Attorney General Kathy Rowe said Tuesday anyone sentenced after Oct. 1 would be eligible for death under the new guidelines. Sentencing before Oct. 1 would follow the current law, The Herald-Mail reported.

“I personally find it appalling that my family has been placed in a position where due to Political events and choices by the state of Maryland, I would be forced to recommend life for a man who has committed the cold-blooded murder of the mother of his children, a man that then shoots and kills the first Police Officer he comes in contact with ...” Larry Nicholson wrote.

Larry Nicholson believes God will judge Pryor.

“I will gladly trade my place in heaven just to be waiting for him at the gates of Hell the day he arrives,” Nicholson wrote.

Nicholson declined to take further questions Friday.

Munson was ‘like a daughter’ to Pryor’s mother

Donnie and Jo Ellen Pryor sat in Montgomery County Circuit Court for three hours Friday afternoon as their son’s fate unfolded.

Douglas Wayne Pryor had faced the death penalty for killing Smithsburg Police Officer Christopher Shane Nicholson, but he pleaded guilty Friday to first-degree murder and was sentenced to life in prison without parole for Nicholson’s death.

“I don’t have much to say,” Donnie Pryor said as he left the courtroom.

Jo Ellen Pryor clutched a folder of pictures.

In the folder, she carried pictures of her son and of Alison Munson, the mother of his children.

Douglas Pryor also pleaded guilty to killing Munson. He will serve another sentence of life without parole for that crime.

Munson lived with them for awhile, the Pryors said.

“She was like a daughter to me,” Jo Ellen Pryor said. It was Jo Ellen Pryor who called 911 when the family first learned Douglas Pryor might have killed Munson.

Now, she only has the pictures — of Pryor as a small boy, of him and Munson with their first-born child, now 10, and of both of them with two of their children at a playground.