Second Man Sentenced for Utah Farm Fire

New York Times/January 19, 2005

Salt Lake City -- A second man who admitted setting fire to a farm building at Brigham Young University on behalf of an animal rights group was sentenced Tuesday to 2 1/2 years in prison.

Joshua S. Demmitt, 19, could have received up to 20 years after pleading guilty to destruction of property by fire. The blaze last July on BYU's Provo campus caused an estimated $30,000 damage.

Harrison D. Burrows, 18, who admitted starting the fire with Demmitt, received an identical sentence on Jan. 10.

Demmitt earlier admitted pouring gasoline on bound cardboard in a storage shed and lighting it.

"We started the fires to make a political statement on behalf of the Animal Liberation Front," his statement to the court read.