An animal-rights activist who admitted taking part in a plot to burn down a Murray leather store pleaded guilty Monday to an amended charge of attempted arson.
Jacob Lymon Kenison, 19, had been charged with one count of aggravated arson in the June 15, 1995, blaze at Tandy Leather. Da-m-age was estimated at more than $300,000.Prosecutors agreed to amend the charge to a third-degree felony because much of the state's evidence was circumstantial, said Salt Lake County Deputy District Attorney Ernie Jones.
"It's our first breakthrough in this case," Jones said. "I'd rather grab a zero to five (sentence) than lose it."
Jones said the Tandy investigation is "slow" but ongoing. He said he believes up to five other people were involved in the crime.
Asked by 3rd District Judge Tyrone Medley about his role in the crime, Kenison at first hesitated. After consulting with his public defender, Roger Scowcroft, he said, "My participation in it was throwing a brick through a window and sort of a lookout position."
He denied throwing the Molotov cocktail that sparked the fire.
Medley set sentencing for Dec. 15 after rejecting a request by Scowcroft for immediate sentencing.
"We fear that if he is detained further he will lose the opportunity to be detained in a federal boot-camp center," Scowcroft told the judge.
Medley said he wants to see a presentence report first.
Kenison faces up to five years at the Utah State Prison. However, prosecutors agreed to recommend his sentence run concurrent with a federal sentence he received earlier this month for illegally acquiring an assault rifle while facing the arson charge.
Kenison bought an assault rifle one month after the arson charge was filed in state court. In making the purchase, Kenison claimed he wasn't facing charges for any crime for which he could be imprisoned for more than one year.
He was indicted on a federal count of acquiring a firearm by false statement and pleaded guilty in August.
The person Kenison allegedly bought the gun for is under indictment for using pipe bombs to damage a fur-business building. Douglas Joshua Ellerman, 19, has been charged with placing pipe bombs at the Utah Fur Breeders Agricultural Cooperative last March. Ellerman's trial was scheduled to begin on Monday but was postponed.
On the federal charge, Kenison was sentenced to a maximum 16 months by U.S. Chief District Judge David Sam, who said he would recommend Kenison for a boot-camp program followed by 36 months of supervision. Kenison also must serve 100 hours of community service.