Jonathan H. Young

A western New York man was sentenced Thursday in Butler County Court to incarceration, after being charged with starting a fire in a vacant house in Slippery Rock.

Jonathan H. Young, 21, of Kennedy, N.Y., was sentenced to 15 to 30 months in Butler County Prison by Judge William Shaffer. He was given 395 days time served credit. He was also ordered to pay court costs and $60,864.12 in restitution.

After serving his Butler County sentence, Young will be returned to authorities in either New York or in Warren County, Pa., as he is wanted on charges in those two jurisdictions. Young is wanted in his hometown after being charged with intentionally setting a dozen fires there between March 2 and 25 of last year, mostly at abandoned or condemned homes and apartments, according to police in Jamestown, N.Y.; as well as by state police in Warren County on burglary and theft charges.

Young pleaded guilty April 3 to felony arson in Butler County.

He was initially charged in the Butler County case by state police with three felony counts of arson, burglary, attempted burglary, criminal mischief, criminal trespass, misdemeanor possession of an instrument of crime, theft and summary dangerous burning after an incident on Davis Lane near Route 8 on March 28, 2017. The remaining charges were dismissed as part of the plea.

State police arrested Young minutes after the intentional fire badly damaged a vacant, two-story home in Slippery Rock Township. The home was used by the owner of a woodworking shop.

Young was arrested at the Wieners Gone Wild hot dog shop on Route 8, after police said he matched the description of the suspect, whom a neighbor reported seeing walking near the house moments before the fire.

Once Young was identified, he was found to be wanted by the Jamestown, N.Y., police department on 12 counts of arson in connection with the string of arsons in Chautauqua County, N.Y.

State police in Warren County also charged Young with felony burglary, theft and misdemeanor loitering and prowling at night after they say he broke into a home and garage, stealing a car in Pine Grove Township between March 26 and 27, a day or two after he allegedly set his last fire in New York and a day or two before he set the fire in Slippery Rock Township.

The stolen vehicle was eventually recovered in the Oil City area in Venango County.

When Young was arrested, police said he was found with two cigarette lighters, a hammer, screwdriver and a wrench, which were found to have been stolen from the Slippery Rock home.

No one was injured as a result of the fire, but a Harrisville volunteer firefighter had to be treated for chest pains while battling the blaze.

Young eventually confessed to setting the Slippery Rock Township fire with a cigarette lighter, police said. He claimed that he had no home and “bounces around from place to place scavenging for what he needs to survive,” according to court documents. He told investigators that at the time of the fire he was walking on his way to the hot dog shop after spending the night in the woods. He said that he was planning to walk to Virginia.

Assistant District Attorney Benjamin Simon said the victim of the Slippery Rock incident suffered “significant economic and emotional loss” due to the fire.

Young apologized during the proceeding, saying, “I truly feel remorseful for what I did. I realize I did wrong. I am very sorry, I never meant to hurt you.”