A Poplar Bluff man has been sentenced to 10 years in prison after pleading guilty to arson related to a 2021 house fire.
Nathan Dewayne Montgomery pleaded guilty Thursday in front of 36th Judicial Circuit Judge Mike Pritchett.
He was sentenced to a decade in prison for first-degree arson, with credit given for the time he’s spent in jail since his arrest.
Butler County Prosecuting Attorney Paul Oesterreicher appeared for the state. Montgomery was represented by public defender Jeffrey McCormick of Kennett.
Poplar Bluff firefighters were called April 23, 2021, to a fire at a multi-family residential structure at 317 West Relief St.
The structure was occupied at the time of the fire, but no injuries were reported.
Witnesses told authorities at the time that Montgomery had occupied an apartment at the property without permission and had threatened the lives of the other tenants just prior to the fire.
Probable cause statements filed with the Butler County court stated witnesses and video also showed Montgomery leaving the area of the building just prior to the fire being reported.
Montgomery was arrested in June 2021 after crossing paths with a Poplar Bluff Police Department officer in a local grocery store.