HINTON, W.Va. — A Summers County man has been sentenced to 23 years in prison for setting fire to a house earlier this year in Hinton.
Billy Gill, 25, of Hinton, was sentenced Friday in Summers County Circuit Court after a July guilty plea to charges of first degree arson and attempted malicious assault.
Gill never said why he started the fire at the house on 5th Ave. in Hinton back in Feb. He said he couldn’t remember what happened.
Circuit Judge Robert Irons sentenced him Friday to 20 years on the arson conviction and 1-3 years on the attempted malicious assault. The sentences will run consecutively. With good time, Gill could have a chance for parole in as little as six years.
Gill had also originally been charged with setting another fire the same night that destroyed the Brick Row Apartments in Hinton and forced 30 people out of their homes.
Those charges were dropped in May because fire investigators could not determine what started that blaze.