GEM COUNTY -- A man who set a pair of Gem County churches on fire in 2013 deserves to die in prison, a judge ruled Monday.
Bradley Ryan Thomasson, 43, was sentenced to 85 years in prison without parole for his role in torching the First Baptist Church and Community Bible Church in Emmett. Prosecutors have said Thomasson and codefendant William Dorahush set the churches ablaze on the morning of April 27, 2013 to cover up break-ins. Dorahush is currently serving a 25-year sentence; he'll be eligible for parole in 2018.
Prosecutor Richard Linville said the Thomasson received a heftier sentence because of his criminal history: The arsons were committed while Thomasson was on parole for the 1989 murder of his adoptive parents. His arrest on new charges sent him back to prison to continue serving out the life sentence in that case.
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Thomasson will be eligible for parole again on the murder charges in 2018. But by stacking the penalties in the arson case consecutively, Judge Susan Wiebe's ruling left no chance Thomasson will ever again leave the custody of the Idaho Department of Corrections. Even if he was paroled again on the murder convictions, Thomasson would remain behind bars.
Thomasson was convicted in March of two counts of arson, two counts of burglary, grand theft and petit theft. Originally charged with the same, a plea deal allowed Dorahush to shed several charges, another factor in his lighter sentence, Linville said.
Learning the fires that gutted two churches were intentionally set shocked the community of Emmett and sent parishioners scrambling for an interim place of worship. Pastors from both churches held services in borrowed spaces until repairs were finished.
