This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2005, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
A Draper man who once pretended to be a hero who had rescued his family from an apartment fire was sentenced Wednesday to a minimum mandatory term of five years in prison for deliberately setting the blaze.
In addition to imposing the time behind bars for the arson, U.S. District Judge Paul Cassell ordered Michael Wayne Wold to pay $225,000 in restitution to the insurance company that covered the fire damage.
"I just want to apologize to my family, my wife, my kids," Wold, 29, said to his relatives and in-laws who were present at the sentencing. "I just want to tell both sides of the family that I appreciate the support."
His attorney, Fred Metos, said "substantial psychological problems" were the primary reason for Wold's behavior.
The two-alarm fire broke out Nov. 10 in the Wold family's apartment at 11170 S. 120 East, and firefighters could see smoke and flames from several blocks away. They were immediately suspicious due to the advanced state of the blaze when they arrived.
Wold told investigators he attempted to extinguish the flames but was unsuccessful. He and his wife then grabbed their 2-year-old daughter and 10-month-old son and escaped through a second-floor window.
Other neighbors in the eight-unit building were able to get out unharmed. Wold was hospitalized for smoke inhalation.
"Things had been strained for about six months before but I never would have thought him capable of this," his wife, Melissa Mounteer, who is divorcing Wold, said after the sentencing.
After the fire, Wold became a suspect in two other blazes, one at the family's previous apartment in West Jordan and the other that burned a delivery van.
Charges were never brought in those fires.