Posted on 08/20/2015 8:01:06 AM PDT by george76
A Florence man charged with setting a series of fires nine years ago in Ravalli and Missoula counties that cost millions of dollars to fight was back in a Ravalli County court Wednesday.
Jonah Mica Warr, 28, was recently released on probation after serving seven years of a 10-year federal prison sentence for setting the fires in 2006.
Warr’s court troubles in Ravalli County date back to 2004 when he pleaded guilty before District Judge Jeffery Langton to a number of felony charges for possession of explosives and criminal mischief for blowing up mailboxes in the Florence and Stevensville areas. In September, Langton will resentence Warr on those charges.
Langton had deferred Warr’s sentence for six years and placed him on probation.
After being released on his own recognizance, Warr left the area and was charged with criminal offenses in Wyoming and South Dakota.
Ravalli County prosecutors then filed a petition to revoke his deferred sentence, which the judge accepted and imposed a 10-year suspended sentence.
The forest arsons followed in 2006.
Warr admitted to setting at least 19 fires, including the Gash Creek fire, which cost more than $7 million to fight.
He was sentenced to a 10-year prison term in a federal court on nine counts of arson in 2007 and was ordered to pay $455,229 in restitution.
Later that year, Langton revoked Warr’s suspended sentence. The judge sentenced Warr to 10 years with the Montana Department of Corrections with five years suspended. The sentence was to begin after Warr served his federal time for the 2006 arsons.
(Excerpt) Read more at ravallirepublic.com ...
What is the difference between a revoked and a suspended sentence? Either way this guy was out of prison starting more fires.
I watched that Gash Creek fire from my house ... I live in Victor. Damn smokey here now. Are you in the Bitterroot?
Revoked it goes away,and you start over with sentencing. Suspended means its hanging over your head, but you don't have to serve it at this point. Suspended is usually done to try to get a youthful or first time offender to behave - its suspended on certain conditions, and if the conditions are met, it never has to be served. This guy apparently continued to offend, and now he needs some hard time.
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