A Fairbanks man was sentenced Thursday for carrying out a series of arson attacks in the Pleasant Valley and Two Rivers area in the summer of 2021. Jamison Gallion, 19, was sentenced by Superior Court Judge Paul Lyle to serve 24 years in prison.
Gallion, who was 17 years old when he was arrested in August 2021, was tried as an adult.
Given time served since his arrest and assuming a one third sentence reduction for good behavior, Lyle said Gallion’s mandatory release date will be in 2037. Gallion is also ordered to pay restitution to victims, including forfeiture of permanent fund dividends.
Gallion admitted to setting fire to seven properties, including two structures with people inside. He pleaded guilty last year to the felony crimes of arson, burglary, criminal mischief and terroristic threatening.
The judge underscored that it was “sheer happenstance” that no one died or was injured by the fires Gallion set. Speaking before a crowded courtroom, Lyle explained key factors weighed in the sentencing and the seriousness of Gallion’s crimes.
“The defendant engaged in a series of arsons that caused millions of dollars of damage. He directly endangered the lives of ten people, some of them as they slept,” he said.
Lyle also spoke to letters Gallion sent to the Pleasant Valley Community Association which he described as “terrorizing and taunting the entire Two Rivers-Pleasant Valley community for three months in the summer of 2021.”
Rehabilitation potential was another factor, and Lyle highlighted Gallion’s remorsefulness.
“He stood and faced his victims in the courtroom and apologized, which in this court’s experience is relatively rare,” he said.
Lyle additionally noted Gallion’s young age, lack of prior criminal history and supportive family as favorable to rehabilitation, but also expressed uncertainty given Gallion’s “disturbing motivations” for the arson attacks.
“The defendant has indicated that he committed the arsons for the thrill of it, to calm his stress, which would return after each fire, for personal satisfaction and because he allowed wickedness to overtake him. His June 2021 letter said he committed the arsons to obtain revenge and to release anger against people who were unkind,” Lyle said.
The sentence Lyle handed down is longer than those recommended by attorneys for Gallion and the state, and it surprised arson victim Donald McKee.
“After listening to the DA last week, I was going ah, he’s probably going to serve about ten years,” McKee said. “Well, Judge Lyle put a little bit of teeth to it, and I was happy to see that.”
McKee, his wife, other family members and a rental tenant escaped a fire that destroyed their multi structure property. He says Gallion should have gotten more time, but some charges were dropped. He estimates the replacement cost of the property he lost at about $2.5 million but says the arson attack has also taken another type of toll.
“This morning I was taking a shower and right in the beginning of my shower, the power went out,” he said. “And my first thought was ‘Oh man, another fire.’ And that’s every time the power goes out. I hope I get over that someday.”
The arsons also destroyed and heavily damaged buildings belonging to the Pleasant Valley Community Association. Association treasurer and founding board member Bob Sugden expressed mixed emotions after Gallion’s sentencing.
“Quite frankly I’m sick in my stomach just having to have relived all of this,” he said. “I feel like what has been done and what has been sentenced is appropriate and right. I don’t want to be capricious and mean spirited, but at the same time I don’t want this person to ever have access to our community again.”
Sugden, a pastor, says he hopes Gallion can eventually find some semblance of a healthy and whole life. The courtroom was filled with people for the sentencing, a mix of Pleasant Valley Two Rivers area residents, including arson victims as well as family and friends of Jamison Gallion.
Gallion looked down for periods of the over hour long proceeding, but seemed to maintain composure as his sentence was delivered.
