Reidsville man convicted of setting fires

WENTWORTH – A 28-year-old man charged in March 2007 with setting several fires, including one at an Islamic Prayer Center, was sentenced to three months in jail and given a 15-year suspended sentence.

Thursday, Rockingham County Superior Court convicted Robert William Branch, of 108 Deer Trail Road in Reidsville, of intending to burn a church, setting fire to woodland and grassland, setting fire to an uninhabited structure, burning personal property, possession of marijuana and possession of drug paraphernalia.

On the night of March 26, 2007, the Yanceyville, Monroeton and Williamsburg volunteer fire departments responded to several intentionally set fires near Barnes Street. One was an abandoned house, one a gas station, one a trash bin, another the Islamic Prayer Center, and three others were wood and brush fires.

Law enforcement and firefighters responding to a brush fire in front of the Islamic Center interviewed a man in a green car who said he had run out of gas and was waiting for his wife to pick him up. The man, who court papers said was Branch, pushed the green car out of the road and then got into a white car.

The white car was spotted later near a brush fire and a house fire on Cook Florist Road by a Rockingham County sheriff’s deputy. The deputy said the man, identified as Branch, had burns on his hands.

Branch claimed during his trial he remembered little of that night, saying he had taken several drugs, including cocaine and Xanex. The judge commented that he believed Branch had “selective memory” in that instance and called his actions that night those of “monumental stupidity.” Though harmful, the court did not believe Branch set fire to the Islamic Center out of hatred for the religion.

“It just happened to be a structure close to where you had a match,” the judge said.

Branch’s sentence was not as harsh as the state allowed, but considered Branch’s two young children. The judge gave Branch three months in the Rockingham County Jail starting immediately, six months intensive probation following release and three consecutive five-year suspended sentences.

Additionally, he is ordered to pay more than $23,000 in restitution to the Yanceyville, Williamsburg and Monroeton volunteer fire departments, the Islamic Center for reconstruction of its rear deck and the owner of the abandoned structure.

Staff writer Heather J. Smith can be reached at hsmith@reidsvillereview.com or 349-4331, ext. 16.