This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2017, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
The man who admitted to starting a small Mill Creek Canyon wildfire in September 2015 was sentenced Thursday to five years of federal court probation and ordered to pay for the costs incurred for fighting the fire.
James Orville Gill, 37, had admitted to fire authorities he started the fire that grew to 5 acres on the Uinta-Wasatch-Cache National Forest, led to a voluntary evacuation of nearby residents and cost more than $160,000 to extinguish.
"He's taken responsibility for this," Bob Steele, Gill's defense attorney in the case, said Thursday. "Mr. Gill has done some good rehabilitative work and the sentence is structured to help him continue on that path."
Steele declined to talk about the mental health and substance abuse treatment provisions in the sentence or to say where Gill, a veteran, is now.
Federal prosecutors had asked the judge to sentence Gill to 27 months in prison, noting a long history of drug use and a past conviction for choking his girlfriend.
They said the bill to put out the fire and keep the nearby Mount Aire residential area safe was just over $160,000. They described Gill as "a chronic drug user with various serious mental health diagnoses."
They also said Gill admitted in a pre-sentencing report that he had used drugs and was not thinking clearly at the time he set the fire.
When fire officials responded to the blaze shortly after it started at about midnight on Sept. 11, 2015, they encountered Gill along the trail. When asked if he knew how the fire started, Gill told a United Fire Authority captain, "Oh, I started it," and pulled out the lighter he said he used.
"At the very least," prosecutors wrote, "Mr. Gill needs a significant period of time under the careful watch of this Court which must include continued substantial mental health and substance abuse evaluation and treatment."
While U.S. District Judge David Nuffer sentenced Gill to repay the firefighting costs, prosecutors said it was "highly unlikely that even a dent will be made" to cover the bill, given that Gill is homeless, jobless and has a history of mental illness.
Melodie Rydalch, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's office, said she believed Gill was currently living in housing provided by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
Rydalch added: "We argued for the 27 months [in prison], but we feel that Judge Nuffer put in a lot of thought and reached a reasonable sentence."
Twitter: @TaylorWAnderson