A Florida man has been sentenced to five years in prison for setting fires behind the same Tampa Bay-area grocery store three days in a row starting on Christmas last year.
Robert Timon Lovett, 50, of Bradenton, was sentenced Monday in Tampa federal court, according to court records. He pleaded guilty to arson in September.
According to court documents, Lovett started fires behind a Publix grocery store in Parrish on Dec. 25, 26 and 27 of last year. On the second and third days, Lovett actually entered the store and purchased the lighter fluid he used to start the fires, both of which he set while the store was open for business, prosecutors said. The fire he set on Dec. 26 caused significant heat damage to the back of the store.
Law enforcement officers apprehended Lovett on Dec. 28, when he returned to the same Publix and again purchased lighter fluid, officials said. Lovett admitted to investigators that he started the fires.
Defense attorney Kathleen Sweeney said in a sentencing memo that Lovett had suffered from lifelong drug abuse and depression. Lovett lost his 10-year-old son to a bacterial infection in 2019, prompting a downward spiral, Sweeney said.
At some point, Lovett began writing letters to his dead son but later decided to burn them, Sweeney wrote. The attorney said Lovett had been high on methamphetamine and various pills for several days when he chose to burn the letters behind the Publix because he didn’t think the concrete building was at risk of catching fire.
Topics Florida
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