Teen gets prison for arson

EUGENE, Ore. – A teenager charged with using Molotov cocktails to set fire to the car of a school administrator who disciplined him for smoking marijuana will serve up to eight years in a youth prison.

A judge on Monday ordered Bruno Gartner Jr., 17, into the custody of MacLaren Youth Correctional Facility in Woodburn. He could be there until he is 25.

Another teen, 17-year-old Joseph Robert Gentile, was ordered last month into a residential reform program for up to a year.

Gartner was also ordered to pay $8,700 in restitution to retired Sheldon High School Assistant Principal John Lindsley, who awoke May 1 to find his vehicle burning in his driveway.

The fire burned within 5 feet of the home where Lindsley and his wife, Cathy, were sleeping.

Gartner’s family and defense attorney Dan Koenig had tried to paint Gentile as the orchestrator of the plot and Gartner as his unknowing accomplice.

But in handing down his decision, Lane County Juvenile Court Judge Kip Leonard cited past police reports, including one about an incident in which Gartner tried to assault a Valley River Center security guard who stopped him for shoplifting.

When it was his turn to speak, Gartner apologized to Lindsley, who had described the fear he felt for his own safety and that of his family.