FARMINGTON — A Franklin County justice Monday sentenced a former Massachusetts man to 12 years in prison will all but 46 months suspended for burning down an abandoned home in Wilton in June 2015.
Duane Bailey, 28, who had been staying in Wilton at the time, also was sentenced for burglarizing three Franklin County stores on June 30 and July 1 last year.
The Wilton home belonged to Kandi Ward of Roxbury.
Justice William Stokes also sentenced Bailey to four years probation on the arson charge, following his release from prison.
Bailey pleaded guilty to two counts of arson earlier this month.
Stokes sentenced Bailey to serve 46 months of a second 12-year sentence and four years probation for burning down a camp in Carthage that belonged to Gene and Andrea Casey of Mexico. That sentence will run concurrent with the Wilton arson sentence.
Bailey is one of four men accused in the Wilton arson case and one of three accused in the Carthage case.
Assistant District Attorney Joshua Robbins said the sentence was reached after researching Department of Corrections records of arson cases and sentences. Factors taken into consideration were Bailey being cooperative and taking responsibility for what he did and that he only had an operating under the influence conviction and a tagging graffiti conviction.
Bailey carried the gas can to burn a home on Main Street in Wilton over an alleged wrongdoing to get to a person who lived there. However, dogs scared away Bailey and co-defendant Einer Bonilla, 22, of Grand Island, Neb., according to investigators.
Instead, the two with other co-defendants decided to burn down the vacant home at 9 Sewall St., with hopes of the fire spreading into the backyard and to the Main Street building.
Bailey and two other co-defendants are also accused of going to Carthage to burn the Caseys’ camp.
Andrea Casey looked at Bailey during the sentencing hearing and told him the only reason he was cooperative is because he was caught. She asked him how he knew no one was home on June 27, 2015 since there was a truck parked at the cabin.
Casey said that 15 years of hard work and sweat and money went into building the camp. She went through the history of the home. They and family members had cleared the land and built the log cabin by themselves and without using heavy equipment. Family members, including her parents, wrote in a log book each time they visited. The book was destroyed with the camp.
She told Bailey that when he is released and has a family he will probably want a home. She told him to think about what he did.
Andrea and Gene Casey were both upset that Bailey would only spend 46 months in prison.
“You have got to be kidding,” Andrea Casey said. “This was our life. This is what we did every week … I don’t have that any more. It’s gone.
Gene Casey said the camp meant a lot to them.
“My family cherished that camp,” he said, adding that there were a lot of nice memories. He also said Bailey should get a longer time in prison.
Justice Stokes explained how the sentence was reached in the case.
Bailey’s attorney Philip Mohlar told the court that Bailey regrets what happened.
In a separate case involving burglary of Skoolhouse Variety Store in Weld, Our Village Market in New Vineyard and My Dad’s Place in Jay, Bailey was sentenced to serve four years in prison on three felony burglary charges.
He was also sentenced to serve 180 days for each of two counts of theft. He pleaded guilty to the charges earlier in April.
Both sentences will be served concurrently with the arson sentence.
During his probation, Bailey will also have to pay restitution of $350 for Skoolhouse Variety, $500 for Our Village Market, $744 for My Dad’s Place and $1,000 for the deductible the Caseys had to pay for their insurance.
Bailey has to pay up to $4,400 restitution for the Wilton home.
Bonilla and D’Kota Rowe, 21, of Wilton who face similar charges in both cases to Bailey have not had their arson or burglary cases resolved. Rowe goes on trial Tuesday, April 26, on the arson charge.
dperry@sunmediagroup.net
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