Lacey man to serve 1 year for arson, domestic violence

A 42-year-old Lacey man was sentenced Wednesday to one year in prison after pleading guilty to arson and domestic violence charges.

The man was arrested in August after he assaulted his wife and set fire to his garage. He appeared before Thurston County Superior Court Judge Carol Murphy on Wednesday and pleaded guilty to two charges: second-degree arson and fourth-degree assault.

Defense attorney Saxon Rodgers told the judge that his client’s guilty plea to the arson charge was an Alford plea — meaning he still claimed he was innocent but believed that a jury may find him guilty. He said that the evidence in the arson case was circumstantial, and based on a statement the defendant’s wife made to the police.

“She told the police initially that he had set the fire because she couldn’t figure out who else would have set it,” Rodgers said.

Murphy sentenced the defendant to 12 months in prison for the arson charge, and awarded him a 364-day suspended sentence for the assault charge. The defendant won’t serve the additional 364 days unless he violates the terms of his sentence.

Court documents give the following account of the incident:

Lacey police and fire responded to a house on the 4800 block of 42nd Lane Southeast after a woman reported that her husband assaulted her after discovering that she was going to a housewares party.

The woman said that her husband had been physical with her before, and that he had swung a chair at her and pulled her to the ground by her hair. As she and her daughter began to leave the home, the woman smelled smoke.

She said she saw flames in the garage, and rushed to get her daughter and their pets out of the house. She said she saw her husband trying to extinguish the fire.

This story was originally published October 28, 2015 at 4:41 PM with the headline "Lacey man to serve 1 year for arson, domestic violence."