A Vancouver man was sentenced Monday to more than 2½ years in prison for setting fire to two under-construction buildings in August 2016.
Ryan J. Rodriguez, 19, pleaded guilty earlier this month in Clark County Superior Court to first-degree arson and second-degree burglary in connection with the back-to-back fires that destroyed an under-construction apartment building and two-story house in the Minnehaha area.
A co-defendant, Cheyenne Christensen, then 17, pleaded guilty in September in juvenile court to being an accomplice to second-degree arson. She was given credit for 30 days in detention and is serving 12 months’ probation, according to court records.
Restitution in the case was determined to be more than $360,000, according to the prosecution.
Firefighters responded to the 12-unit apartment complex being built at 4721 N.E. 66th Ave. at about 3:45 a.m. Aug. 10 and remained on scene much of the morning, extinguishing the blaze. Court records state that the construction site was secured with a fence, but several places within the site had been vandalized with spray paint.
At 1:30 a.m. the following day, flames were seen coming through the roof of an under-construction two-story house at 5712 N.E. 47th St., just half a mile away.
That fire also damaged three nearby occupied structures, which had to be evacuated. Witnesses reported seeing four teenagers in the vicinity of the fire, and investigators found ignitable liquid at the fire’s origin, according to a probable cause affidavit.
About a week after the fires, police arrested Rodriguez for allegedly stealing tools from the apartment complex site and selling them on a mobile app. He told police his girlfriend, Christensen, was with him at the site, the affidavit said.
Police contacted Christensen, who said she, Rodriguez and a third acquaintance used bolt cutters to enter the site, steal tools and vandalize buildings with spray paint. She said Rodriguez and the other acquaintance used wood and insulation to start a fire inside the complex and spray paint to accelerate the fire, court record state.
The trio then ran from the scene.
In the Aug. 11 fire, Christensen told police that she was with Rodriguez and two other people at the under-construction house when Rodriguez used some type of liquid to start a fire in the kitchen, according to a separate probable cause affidavit.
During sentencing, Rodriguez’s defense attorney, Chuck Buckley, said his client was “in cahoots with a gang of ruffians” at the time.
“Why he did this, he can’t tell me,” Buckley said.
Judge David Gregerson followed the attorneys’ previously agreed-upon sentencing recommendation of 31 months in prison with credit for 242 days already served.
