Md. man sent to psych ward for gasoline attack

FREDERICK, Md. (AP) — An Adamstown man is being committed to a state psychiatric hospital after a Frederick County judge found him guilty but not criminally responsible for dousing an acquaintance with gasoline and setting him on fire.

Twenty-seven-year-old Joshua Mashburn entered an Alford plea Thursday to attempted first-degree murder. In an Alford plea, a defendant doesn’t admit guilt but acknowledges that prosecutors have enough evidence for a conviction.

Mashburn was charged in December in the attack, which left the 48-year-old victim with burns on over half his body.