Arsonist given prison term, fine

The former firefighter and paramedic who admitted three years ago to setting fire to a grass seed warehouse in Fairfield has been ordered a second time to serve five years in prison and pay more than $4.5 million in restitution.

Kenneth Southwell, 55, had been convicted in 2004 in U.S. District Court of arson for burning the Heart Seed Co.’s warehouse in Fairfield. However, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned that conviction based on improper jury instructions, Deputy Spokane County Prosecutor Larry Steinmetz said.

The case was sent back to state court, and a new trial date was set for next month. But Southwell and his attorney, Matt Harget, agreed to a plea bargain Wednesday to essentially the same penalty he received in federal court.

“We attempted a global resolution and this is what we came to,” Steinmetz said. “The court also ordered a mental health evaluation and treatment.”

Superior Court Judge Jerome Leveque also ordered Southwell to pay $4.58 million in restitution, which Steinmetz said was the largest restitution he had ever asked for as a prosecutor.

Since Southwell has served 1,051 days in jail, he faces only another two years of that five-year sentence, Steinmetz said.

Harget, Southwell’s attorney, could not be reached Thursday for comment.

In addition to the Heart Seed fire on Labor Day 2003, Southwell admitted setting five other previous fires in Fairfield.

In his taped confession to agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Southwell said he set the warehouse on fire because he was angry at his ex-wife. She had married a man who worked at the Heart Seed Co., and the couple had a child together.

The same man had been married to Southwell’s sister.

In his closing arguments in the 2004 federal trial, U.S. Attorney Tom Rice argued that Southwell started the massive blaze because he “wanted to be the town hero.”

After the federal conviction was reversed on appeal, a new trial date was set for next month in state court, Steinmetz said.

“We resolved both the federal and state charges in state court,” Steinmetz said.