County man gets 9 months for starting fire

BANGOR – An Aroostook County man was sentenced Tuesday in Penobscot County Superior Court to five years in prison with all but nine months suspended and two years probation for setting a fire in May that destroyed a vacant trailer in Kenduskeag.

No one was hurt in the blaze.

Clifford A. Shaw, 20, of Fort Fairfield also was ordered to pay restitution of $3,790 to the trailer’s owner, Paul Pray of Bangor.

Assistant District Attorney Greg Campbell on Tuesday called Shaw’s sentence “appropriate.”

“He had never done any jail time previously and took responsibility for the fire early,” the prosecutor said. “Due to his age and personal history, we felt it was appropriate that he get a significant sentence, but serve nine months in the [Penobscot] County Jail.”

Shaw was in Bangor visiting family and set the blaze in the vacant and unsecured trailer on May 3, State Fire Marshal Scott Richardson said shortly after the fire. Shaw apparently knew the former occupants and confessed to setting the blaze when questioned by detectives.

A passer-by reported the fire at 8 First St. in Pray’s Trailer Park at about 4:15 p.m., Kenduskeag Fire Chief Gary Currier said in May. Firefighters arrived to find the trailer consumed by flames, but put out the blaze in about 15 minutes.

Shaw was arrested in Presque Isle late on May 3 by fire marshals when he got off the Concord Trailways bus from Bangor. Since then, he has remained in jail unable to make bail and will be credited for time served, Campbell said Tuesday.

Not far from his hometown, Shaw was involved in November in an unusual accident. He was hit by a car in Presque Isle while intoxicated, according to police.

He was walking with two drunken juveniles and began stepping out in front of cars when he was struck by a Fort Fairfield woman driving a 1995 Oldsmobile sedan. Shaw received multiple fractures in the incident.

He was not charged in connection with the incident, but he was convicted of assault in 2002 and sentenced to 60 days in jail, which was suspended, and a year of probation.

Shaw was fined $150 last year for operating watercraft without safety equipment.