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Serial arsonist receives prison in plea bargain By MARK FREEMAN John O'Connor had a penchant for drinking beer and driving his cream-colored van around the Rogue Valley, yet on occasion he would stop along a rural road and become more than a typical drunken driver, authorities said. O'Connor would pull out his cigarette lighter, hold the flame against some dry grass, brush or sticks, then hide somewhere to let the fiery drama unfold. "He'd start these things, go to a nearby location, and just watch them," prosecutor Tim Barnack said. "He's a serial arsonist." The running saga of O'Connor the drunken fire-setter stopped Thursday for at least 21/2 years under a unique plea agreement that sends the 46-year-old drifter and occasional landscaper to prison in exchange for authorities closing the book on his arson history here. In getting O'Connor's guilty pleas Thursday to two counts of first-degree arson, prosecutors granted O'Connor immunity from prosecution for all other arson fires he previously set in Jackson County. One guilty plea stems from a May 8 fire that damaged a west Medford thrift store that was next door to the home of O'Connor's ex-wife. O'Connor was arrested on the store fire May 9 and has been in the Jackson County Jail since then. The second plea stems from a May 6 case in which witnesses saw O'Connor with a burning stick in his hand attempting to ignite a pile of leaves off Griffin Lane, but O'Connor snuffed the flames and fled. "You have a sickness," Judge Patricia Crain said during his sentencing. But those are a smidgen of the arsons that police have attributed over the years to O'Connor, whom investigators knew as a regular arsonist who was generally able to avoid prosecution. "I think he could be involved in at least 10 fires, easily, here," said Ryan Fields, an Oregon State Police arson detective. Those cases include a series of small 1999 fires in utility areas at a south Medford trailer park where he lived, and five small wildland fires in the Lake Creek area that same year, Fields said. The wildland fires attributed to O'Connor rarely grew beyond an acre, often because of when and where they were ignited or a quick response by local firefighting crews. "We were fortunate that none of those took off," said Dan Thorpe, the Medford Unit forester for the Oregon Department of Forestry. A police search warrant affidavit also labels O'Connor as a suspect in a series of small Gresham arsons in 1995 and in a 1997 Dumpster fire off Tripp Street in Medford. "Even though we were certainly aware of him and aware of his potential, there was always less (evidence) than what was necessary to charge him with a crime," Fields said. Barnack said he offered the plea agreement with local immunity last week to O'Connor, who already had a 1993 arson conviction for a fire he started in the Illinois Valley. The immunity cases are ones in which the evidence was slim enough that convictions were not likely, Barnack said. The agreement does not grant O'Connor protection from prosecution elsewhere. Defense attorney Lisa Greif said O'Connor agreed to the plea to avoid further prosecution here. "I think he just didn't want to take his chances with this case, and potential other charges that could be filed against him in the future," Greif said outside of court Thursday. Fields and other detectives hope O'Connor agrees to discuss his past local crimes with them to close some of the cases in which O'Connor is a suspect and help point investigators toward other potential leads in area arsons that he did not commit. Police are investigating at least 14 other wildfire arsons from this year that occurred while O'Connor was in jail, and as many as five different arsonists could be responsible for those blazes, Thorpe said. When O'Connor finishes his prison term, he will spend three years on probation, during which time authorities likely will place him under strict supervision and use regular polygraph tests to ensure O'Connor does not continue his fiery behavior. "I think that if he stays off the bottle," Fields said, "he's not really dangerous." If O'Connor repeats his old behaviors, he faces three to 10 years in prison for any future arson fires he sets - fires for which he has no immunity. "We have him on a choke chain," Barnack said. "He goes the wrong way, we choke his chain and he goes to prison. That's where he should be." Reach reporter Mark Freeman at 776-4470, or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.