A Canaan man has pleaded guilty to setting his neighbors’ house on fire and killing their seven pets in a September blaze, according to the Somerset County district attorney.
Matthew Short, 30, pleaded guilty to arson, burglary and aggravated animal cruelty in Skowhegan District Court on Tuesday. He was sentenced to 15 years in prison, with all but four years suspended, and four years of probation, said Somerset County District Attorney Maeghan Maloney.
The Sept. 21 fire destroyed the mobile home that Aldo Baldie shared with his husband, Ron Pelletier, on Browns Corner Road in Canaan and killed their seven pets.
Baldie, 63, said he still believes the arson was a hate crime and that police have been reluctant to report it as such.
“It’s a sad day when the victims are being made to feel like they’re the ones being sentenced for the crime,” he said Wednesday.
Short allegedly told police in September that he set the fire because the two men had stolen about $150 from him, but the men said that while they lived on the same road in Canaan, they don’t know Short. Police also said the theft allegation turned out to be unfounded but they don’t believe the fire was a hate crime.
Short also made a statement to an acquaintance that he didn’t like the men because of their sexuality, according to a police affidavit in the case, and the men said it is evidence that prejudice may have been the motivation behind the crime.
The Office of the State Fire Marshal, Somerset County district attorney and Office of the Maine Attorney General reviewed the case and determined that the evidence in the case did not meet the criteria of a hate crime — a crime motivated by prejudice — according to Jeremy Damren, an investigator for the Office of the State Fire Marshal.
“There was very, very limited evidence of it being a hate crime,” Damren said. “I think the motivation was what we said all along, the suspect believed there was some missing money and that these two individuals were the ones who may have stolen it. I think he got upset one day and it was kind of a rage incident.”
Baldie said his only connection to Short was that he and Pelletier used to live in the same mobile home that Short had recently moved into around the time of the fire. He said they never took $150 from him.
“People do strange things sometimes and they can get upset over simple matters,” Damren said.
Assistant Attorney General Leanne Robbin told the Morning Sentinel last month that there isn’t always a clear connection between a prejudicial statement and the motivation behind a crime.
“Sometimes when there’s a dispute, these epithets or statements come out, even though that’s not the motivation for the illegal conduct,” she said.
The FBI in a 2012 report listed 1,376 victims of hate crimes targeted because of sexual orientation nationally, which accounted for nearly 20 percent of all hate crimes reported, according to GLAAD, a nationwide gay civil rights group.
GLAAD, on a page devoted to hate crimes on its website, says it believes that local law enforcement “still places a low priority on anti-LGBT hate crimes.”
The page says that as a result, “police may not investigate the case properly or at all, may revictimize survivors, and may be unresponsive to families and/or community members seeking information.”
This story will be updated.
Rachel Ohm — 612-2368
Twitter: @rachel_ohm