Arsonist Kenny Eppler, who admitted setting 15 fires in Gardnerville including the 1994 blaze that burned down Coventry Cross Thrift Shop and East Fork Artists Gallery, is up for a parole hearing in November.
Eppler, 35, has served more than four years of his 10-year sentence from District Judge David Gamble. The judge said at sentencing he wanted Eppler to serve three or four years of the term and get counseling for his psychiatric and alcohol problems.
After he receives credit for good behavior, he has only about a year left to serve even if denied parole this time.
No specific date for a hearing before the Parole Board has been set yet.
In addition to the prison sentence, Eppler must pay $246,000 in restitution.
Eppler's lawyer Tod Young said at sentencing that his client didn't intend to hurt anyone but that his judgment the night he burned down the thrift shop was completely clouded by the vodka he had been drinking.
Eppler, a former volunteer firefighter, set fire to a mattress at the rear of the thrift shop. The fire caught the 100-year-old wooden building and destroyed it.
He also admitted setting 14 other fires in Gardnerville, most within a few blocks of the El Dorado Drive apartment where he lived. After leaving Douglas County in February 1995, he was arrested on three charges of setting similar fires in Bishop, Calif.
He said in a statement to investigators that he set the fires "to get attention."
