Judge issues time-served sentence in house fire
HOLLIDAYSBURG — A former Hollidaysburg-area man has received a time-served sentence, plus four years' probation, to address criminal charges that he said developed from mental health impairments that caused him to set his house on fire.
Marion Dean Patterson IV, 40, entered guilty pleas Friday to a felony count of arson and a misdemeanor count of recklessly endangering another person for a sentence of 12 months, minus a day, to 24 months, minus two days.
Because Patterson has been incarcerated or furloughed from the county prison to a mental health facility since his Dec. 3, 2021, arrest, President Judge Wade A. Kagarise deemed the initial portion of the negotiated sentence to be complete.
The probationary portion starts Friday, Kagarise said, to be managed by the county parole and probation office unless arrangements are made to transfer that supervision to North Carolina.
Defense attorney Dan Kiss told Kagarise that Patterson, who is living in North Carolina, where he continues to receive mental health treatment and has secured employment, is no longer the person he was on the night he set fire to his house.
"He's a different person. It's a light year's change," Kiss said.
District Attorney Pete Weeks said that unlike a defendant charged with arson who sets someone else's house on fire, he recognized Patterson as someone with mental health issues that caused him to set his own house on fire.
"It's something the commonwealth did take into consideration when negotiating the plea," Weeks said.
Charges indicate that responding firefighters and police officers found Patterson outside his burning residence at 1100 Fern Avenue, standing beside a running vehicle.
Patterson was reported to be wearing two bathrobes, a pair of golf shoes, with a fingerless glove on one hand and holding a golf club in the other.
When led away from the property, police said Patterson told them: "Beautiful though, ain't it?"
Further investigation revealed that the fire was intentionally set through the placement of a golf club bag, upside down on the kitchen stove cooktop, unlike 20 other golf bags in the residence.
On Patterson's behalf, Kiss recently initiated a civil court lawsuit against McLean, Va., psychiatrist Christopher Shubert, who was rendering care to Patterson prior to the arson.
In that lawsuit, Kiss alleges that Shubert, for his own financial benefit, exploited Patterson through negligent care that included prescribing medication that caused adverse reactions and mental instability.
The lawsuit also indicates that Virginia's Department of Health has recognized Patterson as being "medically exploited" by the psychiatrist.
Kiss said that efforts are ongoing to serve Shubert with the lawsuit.
In presenting the negotiated plea agreement, Weeks told Kagarise that the Phoenix Volunteer Fire Department's request for $47,360 in restitution has been satisfied.
Mirror Staff Writer Kay Stephens is at 814-946-7456.
