Pair pleads guilty to arson charges

BY KEITH LACEY

Two young men who pleaded guilty to deliberately setting a fire that caused substantial property damage will have to wait until late May for the courts to determine their punishment.

On Tuesday, Mitchell Hayes, 20, and Philip Leblanc, 18, pleaded guilty to one count each of arson for an incident that took place on Aug. 3 last summer in the city's South End.

A pre-sentence report was ordered by Justice Robert Villeneuve. Hayes and Leblanc will return to court for sentencing May 25.

Court heard a joint submission will be presented which will recommend both young men be granted a conditional sentence to be served in the community under harsh restrictions, which will include both wearing electronic monitoring devices.

Villeneuve made it clear to both accused he has the final say and does not have to accept the joint submission.

Assistant Crown attorney Laura Laporte told the court an eyewitness who has known Hayes and Leblanc for several years told Greater Sudbury Police the two men deliberately threw a lighted stick between two buildings on Algonquin Road.

The buildings quickly caught fire so the two accused jumped into a truck and left the scene, said Laporte.

Other witnesses told police they heard one of the accused utter numerous times that evening "let's go burn something", said Laporte.

Hayes' lawyer William Beach and Leblanc's lawyer Charles Bourgeois' told the court their clients deliberately set some brush and hay behind the buildings, which led to the fire getting quickly out of control, and both deny uttering comments about purposely burning things.

The damage from the fire caused an estimated $300,000 in damage, said Laporte.

Beach said that figure is greatly exaggerated.

Villeneuve said the Crown will have to prove the amount of damage caused during the sentencing hearing in May.

Both Hayes and Leblanc remain free on bail until the sentencing hearing.