By By NORMA LERNER / Dowagiac Daily News
CASSOPOLIS - With Arson Awareness Week ending on Sunday, a Niles man went to prison Friday morning for maliciously burning down his former home.
During a sentencing hearing in Cass County Circuit Court, Judge Michael Dodge told Michael Casey, 51, of 2014 U.S. 31 that arson is a serious crime.
It puts those in danger who were summoned to fight his house fire.
It could have spread to a nearby building, Dodge said.
Dodge recounted that on July 8, Howard Township firefighters were called to extinguish a blaze on Thompson Road near Niles.
He noted Casey's guideline range of 36 to 60 months requires prison unless he could find a substantial and compelling reason to deviate from it.
Dodge said the court did not find a compelling reason and imposed a 40-month to 20-year term with credit for 30 days served.
Casey was convicted on April 8 for arson of a dwelling when he went back to his former home on Thompson Road and set a blanket on fire. He knew no one was home because his ex-wife, Cozetta Casey, was on vacation at Disney World in Florida at the time with their sixth-grade son.
Cozetta's sister spoke to the court and showed ruined family pictures found in the rubble that upset their mom and dad.
She said their parents took "great pride in the family and children."
Cozetta sobbed with tears as she told the court that the fire shouldn't have happened. She said she would have had the home for her and their son to grow up in. She said now she lost everything, and her son doesn't have a house. "I've had my life threatened. The tires were slashed on the Jeep. He threatened to burn the house down. He did," she said.
Cozetta said her son wants to go home, but there is no home.
She said there are lost memories such as her son's first hair cut, a tape of him first crying and countless pictures. It was the first time she lost everything, she said. "Now we have to live with this the rest of our lives. There is nothing I can do to change this. He (Casey) deserves the sentence he gets. There is nothing that can replace this loss. He burned his own son's house down," she said.