Alleged Arsonist Sentenced In Warren County Court
WARREN, Pa. — A Jamestown man charged in connection with over a dozen arsons in Jamestown and Butler has been sentenced for theft charges in Warren County, Pa.
Jonathan Hardy Young, 21, appeared before Judge Gregory Hammond on Monday afternoon and pleaded guilty to felony theft by unlawful taking, movable property and misdemeanor loitering and prowling at night time, online court records show.
In exchange for the plea, a first-degree felony count of burglary, overnight accommodations; person present, bodily injury crime was not prosecuted.
Hammond then sentenced Young on Monday to 39 to 78 days incarceration on the theft charge and “no further penalty” at the loitering charge, court records show.
Young has faced charges in two states as a result of fires set in early 2017. Young was charged with setting 12 separate fires in March 2017 in Jamestown and Falconer. Police previously indicated that he acted alone and have not revealed a motive.
His targets included occupied and vacant buildings, an abandoned garage, and condemned structures. All of those arsons occurred between March 2 and March 25, 2017.
Young was arrested in Slippery Rock in Butler County, Pa., on March 28 — immediately after setting a house on fire there.
He made it from New York to Slippery Rock by reportedly stealing a car in Warren County, the Times Observer previously reported.
The affidavit of probable cause, in that case, indicates that on March 27, 2017, a Warren County resident contacted Warren-based Pennsylvania State Police to report that his 2017 Toyota Corolla had been stolen from his garage. Young told police that he had walked from New York into Pennsylvania along Route 62 and took the car after entering a home and taking the keys.
Driving to Oil City, Young told police that he left the car there because he didn’t want to be in a “hot’ car after it had been reported stolen.”
Officials in Chautauqua County are waiting to see what happens to the Pennsylvania charges before prosecuting Young.
His sentence in Butler County has already been satisfied. He was sentenced in April to 15-30 months in prison — with credit for a year time served — for the Butler County arson, online court records show.