Arsonist ordered to pay $1.4 million restitution

Thursday, Aug. 17, 2000 | 9:24 a.m.

Washoe District Judge Brent Adams on Wednesday also placed Steven A. Sandoval, 38, of Pecos, N.M., on five years probation.

But the judge warned Sandoval that he could face more than seven years in prison if terms of his probation are not met, including making set, monthly payments on restitution.

A jury in April found Sandoval guilty of two counts of arson in the July 23, 1999, fire that raced through a 12-story atrium of artificial plants forced the predawn evacuation of about 900 hotel rooms at the Atlantis Casino Resort.

Sandoval and other federal employees were attending a workshop at the resort. Officials said he became angry and set the fire when hotel security twice went to his room on complaints of a loud party.

Sandoval has denied deliberately setting the fire.

"I did not willfully or maliciously start that fire," Sandoval told the judge. "If I did start it, it was totally by accident."

Prosecutors presented evidence at trial that concluded the plants could not have caught fire accidentally.

During Wednesday's sentencing hearing, Sandoval's wife, Catherine, sat in the courtroom with their 3-month-old daughter, Marisol, one of the couple's three children.

Sandoval started his career with the Park Service in a mail room and rose to a supervisory position in purchasing for the Intermountain Region that includes about 30 parks in Utah, Texas, Oklahoma and New Mexico, his lawyer, Robert Bell, said.