A St. Mary’s County judge has sentenced a Waldorf man to serve seven years in prison from his guilty plea to first-degree assault in connection with an armed confrontation from September 2010 outside of a convenience store in Leonardtown.

Maryland State Police arrested Ryan Patterson Foss, now 26, shortly after the incident and filed court papers alleging that he pointed a gun at Brittney Marie Medeiros of St. Inigoes and James Bernard Burroughs II of Leonardtown in the parking lot of the Leonardtown Burchmart, after pulling the gun out from the back seat of his 2010 Dodge Ram pickup truck. When Foss was taken into custody outside of another store, court papers state, he denied ever having a weapon, and police found no weapon in the vehicle.

Grand jurors also charged Foss with stalking Medeiros from August 2010 until November, and with failing to stop after being involved in a property-damage vehicle accident on Lawrence Avenue on the same day as the incident outside of the convenience store.

Foss pleaded guilty in June 2010 to committing a second-degree assault in 2004 in Charles County, online court records state, resulting in a penalty of 40 hours of community service and five years of probation. He was sentenced to serve almost three months in jail last fall in a Charles County theft case.

A presentence investigation report in the St. Mary’s assault case listed Foss as having a moderate criminal record, and called for him to serve between seven and 12 years in prison. St. Mary’s Circuit Judge Michael J. Stamm ordered last week that Foss be taken directly to the department of correction to begin serving the seven-year term, with credit for time in custody since his bond hearing on the indictment last October.

“A long record and a short temper don’t go well together,” St. Mary’s County Assistant State’s Attorney Daniel White said Tuesday at the St. Mary’s courthouse. “It’s a dangerous situation, pointing a gun at someone at a convenience shop.”

Jason Kobin, Foss’ lawyer, said Tuesday, “It’s not as good [a sentencing decision] as we had hoped, but it was the bottom of the guidelines. It’s hard to get below that.”

jwharton@somdnews.com