A Georgia man was sentenced Monday to five years in federal prison in connection with the 2013 fire at Albert’s Exxon in Itta Bena, according to a Leflore County fire official.
Michael St. David Williams, who was charged with two counts of arson, was tried in federal court in Oxford in April. He was also ordered to pay $400,000 in restitution, said Leflore County Interim Fire Coordinator Bobby Norwood.
The early-morning fire on Aug. 12, 2013, gutted the building, located at 40200 U.S. 82 and owned by Greenwood attorney Lee Abraham.
Abraham, who testified in the trial, declined to comment this morning.
Norwood, who served as the county’s fire investigator on the case, said convicting Williams took time.
“We worked on that thing for years and years,” he said.
The fire became a federal case because the store was along a federal interstate highway and it is a violation of federal law to damage property “affecting interstate commerce.”
Abraham subleased the property to businessman Anil Sethi, who then subleased it to businessman Hardeep Kandola. In April 2013, Kandola began subleasing the store to Williams, who bought its inventory, gasoline and cash register.
According to an affidavit signed by Jeffrey J. Osburg, a special agent with the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives, Williams purchased the sublease for $22,600.
After giving Kandola $3,000, Williams wrote three checks totaling $22,600, all of which were returned to Kandola marked “insufficient funds,” the affidavit said.
The agent said witnesses, including Abraham, told him that while Williams was running the store, the shelves contained only a small amount of the merchandise that had been there when Kandola subleased it to Williams.
On July 26, 2013, Williams insured the store with State Farm & Casualty Co., just five days before his sublease expired.
Just before the fire, Williams had expressed an interest in purchasing the building.
Williams told the agent that he and Sian Green were the last two authorized people in the building before the fire. He told the agent the pair were going to drive to Atlanta overnight on the evening of Aug. 11 in an effort to obtain “certain drinks unique to Atlanta.” When Williams told the agent he discovered he had left his wallet behind, the men came upon the burning building.
The agent became suspicious when Williams said the pair headed west on U.S. 82 instead of east toward Atlanta.
In September 2013, Green was picked up in Lithonia, Georgia, on a material witness warrant. Green subsequently confessed to conspiring with Williams to set the fire.
Norwood said investigators had became suspicious when they found the front door of the building unlocked on the morning of the fire. Once inside, they discovered signs that an accelerant had been used, he said.
• Contact Bob Darden at 581-7239 or bdarden@gwcommonwealth.com.
