Former firemen sentenced for arsons

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Sullivan, Bell will serve two years each for incidents

By Preston Knight -- pknight@nvdaily.com

HARRISONBURG -- Ryan John Frank Sullivan craved fire for lunch.

To feed this hunger, according to Rockingham County Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Cristabele Opp, Sullivan set fire to an unoccupied two-story dwelling in Broadway during his lunch break in April, not only for himself, but to create an alibi for his accomplice, Michael Allen Bell, who participated in setting other blazes of vacant or abandoned buildings. On this occasion, Sullivan made eye contact with a witness and got scared.

That actually did not matter too much. The Shenandoah County Sheriff's Office, suspicious of Sullivan regarding fires in the county, already had put a tracking device in his vehicle, Opp said during a sentencing hearing in Rockingham County Circuit Court on Monday morning. And since he lived at the New Market Volunteer Fire Department, where he volunteered with Bell, it wasn't too hard to keep tabs on him.

After it was determined that Sullivan's vehicle was near the scene of the Broadway fire, he was arrested, along with Bell, she said. Although both initially denied involvement in a spree of arsons in Rockingham and Shenandoah counties, they eventually confessed, leading to them receiving identical two-year active prison sentences.

Sullivan, 20, pleaded guilty to three arsons and received 10 years for each. Bell, 19, of Quicksburg, pleaded guilty to two arsons and also received 10 years for each. All but two years were suspended on each man's sentence.

Both defendants are responsible for paying the $101,375 in restitution and face five years of supervised probation upon release from prison. Terms of their probation include writing apologies to the fire department, taking interviews with the company and Rockingham County Department of Fire and Rescue to answer questions about their motives and identifying any other fires that may have been malicious, and not serving for any volunteer department.

The two-year prison sentences will run concurrently with whatever Sullivan and Bell receive in Shenandoah County, where they have pleaded guilty to eight arson-related charges each. Both men have plea agreements not yet accepted by Circuit Court Judge Dennis L. Hupp that would sentence them to serve two years of a 24-year prison sentence. They will return to court Nov. 18.

The restitution in Shenandoah County is $451,350.

Dragana McCleary, an assistant commonwealth's attorney in Shenandoah County, has said that Sullivan and Bell participated in the arson spree because they were bored. Opp said that in Rockingham County, the men set the blazes and returned to the firehouse, waiting for the fires to be reported so they could respond to them.