PORTLAND

A New Gloucester man will serve at least five years in prison after pleading guilty to arson in connection with a fire that destroyed a Freeport business in October.

Christopher L. Veysey II, 22, pleaded guilty to one count of arson and six counts of burglary of a motor vehicle in a Cumberland County courtroom Monday in connection with a late-night fire that totaled six vehicles and caused approximately $500,000 in damage to the wood-framed building of Bob Miles & Sons — a plumbing, heating, electrical and carpentry company — at 1162 Route 1.

The court sentenced Veysey to a total of 15 years in prison, with all but five years suspended, for the charge of arson. Veysey received an additional two-year sentence for the plea conviction on six counts of burglary. The court ordered Veysey to serve those terms concurrently, not backto back.

That combined sentence of at least five years will be followed by four years of probation, during which Veysey must submit to random search and testing for alcohol and drugs; complete counseling and treatment for substance abuse and psychological issues as requested by the probation officer; and be prohibited from being at Bob Miles & Sons in Freeport and possessing incendiary devices.

In a handwritten letter sent to the court June 5, Veysey had previously requested his attorney’s withdrawal from the case.

“I write to him to come to see me and he doesn’t respond or come in,” Veysey wrote. “I also can’t contact him on the phone because of his lack of having money on his phone.”

Veysey withdrew that request Monday, when he entered the guilty plea to the arson and burglaries.

At the time of the fire, investigators said Veysey had no particular connection to the Freeport business.

“(Veysey) just happened to be in the area and it was likely a target of opportunity,” Sgt. Joel Davis of the State Fire Marshal’s Office told The Times Record on Oct. 25.

According to a report prepared by fire investigator Daniel L. Young of the State Fire Marshall’s Office, police identified Veysey as a suspect after interviews with a resident in the area.

On a tip, fire investigators tracked Veysey to the Greyhound bus terminal on St. John Street in Portland, where Veysey had the day before reserved a ticket for a 9 a.m. bus headed to South Carolina.

At the bus station, Veysey waived his right to have an attorney present and spoke with investigators in a taped conversation in which he admitted to breaking into several vans at Bob Miles & Son and also admitted to breaking into three camps near Guilford the previous night, in a separate incident investigated by Piscataquis County authorities.

In that interview, Veysey first told investigators that “he had ‘blacked out’ and could not recall everything from the previous evening.”

In later questioning, Veysey told investigators that he broke into the vehicles behind the Freeport business in search of money. Using a lighter to illuminate the dark cabins of the vehicles, Veysey said he ignited papers under the seat of a service van and then used his hand to put the fire out.

After breaking into other vans, Veysey told fire officials, he saw smoke coming from the van where the papers had been ignited. He then left the scene to walk south, along the railroad tracks, from Freeport to Portland.

When the first firefighters arrived on the scene, flames engulfed three vehicles. The flames eventually leapt to the adjacent building.

dfishell@timesrecord.com

The Times Record Sustaining Sponsor
We believe a community must be informed to thrive. bowdoin.edu