Ex-firefighter gets 5-year term for arson

A former firefighter and paramedic will spend the next four years in federal prison for starting a multimillion-dollar grass seed warehouse fire on Labor Day 2003 in southeastern Spokane County.

Kenneth Southwell received the sentence Thursday when he appeared before U.S. District Court Judge Fred Van Sickle.

The judge had no choice under federal law but to give Southwell the minimum mandatory sentence of five years in prison.

Southwell, 46, was convicted Aug. 5 by a U.S. District Court jury of starting the $4.4 million fire that destroyed the Heart Seed Co. in Fairfield and a freshly harvested crop of grass seed inside the facility.

Specifically, Southwell was convicted of a federal charge of malicious use of fire to damage property involved in interstate commerce.

The prosecution’s case largely was built around a tape-recorded confession Southwell gave to agents of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, who questioned him several days after the fire.

The fire destroyed the business and eliminated the jobs of a half-dozen employees who worked at the grass seed processing warehouse.

The judge said the arson fire was a tragedy for the community of Fairfield, which lost its largest employer, the seed company and its employees, and Southwell.

The former director of Emergency Medical Services for Spokane Country Fire District 2 did not address the court when given that opportunity at Thursday’s sentencing hearing. Southwell didn’t testify in his own defense during the trial, either.

His attorney, Assistant Federal Defender Kim Deater, vainly attempted to convince the jury that Southwell was suffering from a mental illness and, therefore, should be acquitted by reason of insanity.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Tom Rice, who prosecuted the case, told the jury in his closing arguments that Southwell started the fire out of anger involving an old grudge and because he “wanted to be the town hero.”

In his confession to ATF agents, Southwell said he was angry because his ex-wife had married a man who worked at Heart Seed Co., and the couple had a child together. The same man previously had been married to Southwell’s sister, the jury was told.

Southwell was the “acting fire chief” the day of the fire because the department’s top two fire officials were out of the district for the Labor Day holiday. Prosecution witnesses testified that Southwell was worried about being demoted because he didn’t have a high school degree or GED certificate, which was a job requirement.

Southwell was given credit for the one year he’s already served in jail, and he will have to complete four more before being released for three years of court-ordered supervision, similar to probation.

Rice asked the court to enter a $4.4 million order of restitution against Southwell.

Deater asked that a restitution hearing be scheduled before that order is issued by the court.

The judge said he would schedule the restitution hearing sometime within the next 90 days.

The prosecution maintains Southwell should be held accountable for $3 million in restitution to Farmland Insurance Co. and $1.4 million to Heart Seed Co. Inc., which owned the plant.