Comparative Sentencing

From the US Sentencing Commission Annual Report for 2003, the average (mean) arson sentence was 82.7 months (6.9 yrs) and the median sentence was 60 months (5 yrs), for arson as a primary offense in 82 convictions/sentences ( Table 13).

Actual length of imprisonment for repeat offenders (Category III criminal history) spent an average of 11 years for arson with 8 years being the average for all categories (Table 14). This is compared to the average murder sentence of 20.6 years (median 15 yrs), sexual abuse 6 years (median 3.4 yrs), and assault 2.5 years (median 1.25 yrs).

The following cases were prosecuted under Oregon law, Measure 11, which requires mandatory minimum sentencing.

Arson cases:

  • Shawn Leroy Tyler, 19, was ordered by Lane County Circuit Judge Greg Foote to serve 97 months (8 years) in prison after pleading guilty to two counts of first-degree arson for his role in firebombing a home and torching a halfway house (“Man gets eight years in prison for fires,” City/Region, Register Guard, 11-19-94).
  • Conrad Milton Baker Jr., 47, plead guilty to First Degree Arson in August of 2001. In September of 2001, Lane County Circuit Judge Eveleen Henry sentenced Baker to 3 years in prison. (“Man gets jail for burning home,” City/Region, Register Guard, 9-6-01).
  • Clarence Davenport, Sherry Armstrong and Lee Armstrong were convicted on 21 counts of arson, fraud, and making false statements. The three were found guilty of setting fire to the building they lived and worked in to collect insurance, then claiming that the fire was an anti-Semitic hate crime aimed at them. The article stated that these individuals could receive from 5 to 20 years in prison. Judge Hogan did not apply Measure 11 to these individuals, and promised that they would be sent to a minimum-security facility. (“Arsonists to remain free until sentencing,” City/Region, Register Guard, April 4, 1996).

Other cases:

Jimmie Douglas Davis, who attacked two Dunes City residents with an axe, plead guilty to attempted murder on April 10 and was sentenced to 15 years in prison (“Man receives 15-year sentence for axe attack,” City/Region, Register Guard, 4-11-02).

On January 21, 1998, a jury convicted Terrell Leland Thomas, 30, of one count of 1st degree kidnapping and two counts each of 1st degree sexual abuse and attempted rape. Judge Lyle Velure (the judge who sentenced Jeffrey Luers to 23 years for scorching three trucks) sentenced the man to 20 years under Measure 11.

After describing convicted rapist Adam Seth Anderson as a “miserable excuse for a human being” Judge Jack Billings sentenced the 22 year old to 25 years in prison without parole. Anderson was convicted of kidnapping, robbing, raping and sodomizing a 21-year-old woman, stabbing her 19 times, and leaving her for dead after throwing her body into a tributary of the Siuslaw River west of Walton. (“Rapist gets 25 years in prison” - City/Region, Register Guard, 12-5-96).

These are links to federal cases involving conspiracy to commit arson:

Suspect in Maryland arson pleads guilty to conspiracy
By Stephen Manning
ASSOCIATED PRESS

1:36 p.m. April 28, 2005

GREENBELT, Md. – One of five men charged in an arson spree at a suburban Washington housing development pleaded guilty Thursday to taking part in what prosecutors said was a crime aimed at black families moving into the neighborhood.

Jeremy D. Parady, 20, pleaded guilty in federal court to conspiracy to commit arson. Prosecutors planned to ask for nearly 10 years in prison and restitution of $4.18 million. Sentencing was set for June 14.

Parady “selected or aided and abetted the selection of the Hunters Brooke development as the object of the arson because he knew or perceived that many of the purchasers of the houses in that development were African-American,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Donna Sanger said.

All five men arrested in the fires are white.

Prosecutors believe the men drove to the development Dec. 6, poured chemicals at 35 homes that were under construction and torched them. At least 10 houses were destroyed. The fires did an estimated $10 million in damage. No one was hurt.

All five men were charged with arson, conspiracy to commit arson and aiding and abetting; none was charged with committing a hate crime.

Parady drove one of the cars the arsonists used to travel from house to house as they lit the blazes, Sanger said. He also supplied some of the flares used to start the fires, taking them from a volunteer fire company in Accokeek where he was a firefighter, she said.

Parady also recruited or attempted to recruit other people to take part in the conspiracy, Sanger said.

In addition to racism, other possible motives offered by prosecutors included a a desire by alleged ringleader Patrick Walsh to gain fame for a loosely organized group called “the family.”

There was early speculation that the fires were set because environmentalists believe the houses were a threat to nearby bog. But authorities later said no evidence was found to support that theory.