Arsonist Gets Prison Time For Series Of Nursery Fires

Thomas Stecher said he didn't really understand why he did what he did. The urge would just hit him, he told the state trooper, according to court records. His palms would get sweaty, Stecher said. The urge would grow.

It wouldn't disappear until he set a fire, he said. He felt better then, like he felt after setting five fires at two nurseries near his Perkasie home last year, the ones that caused more than $15,000 in damage.

Stecher, 28, was sentenced by Bucks County Judge Isaac S. Garb on Friday to 2 1/2 to five years, less one day, in Bucks County Prison after pleading guilty to arson and related charges. (Any sentence of five years or more must be served in state prison.) Garb also ordered Stecher, of the Brookside Apartments along Old Bethlehem Pike, to serve five years' probation after his release from prison.

The judge also ordered him to pay more than $14,000 in restitution to the nurseries - Branch Creek Farms along Branch Creek Road and Roger's Road Stand along Route 313.

No one was injured in the five late-night fires he set between May 13 and July 7.

Investigators quickly developed Stecher as a suspect, according to court records. He lived within walking distance of the nurseries. His footprints were matched to those found at one of the fire scenes. He has a history of arson offenses, including setting fires as a juvenile to his relatives' houses that caused more than $165,000 in damage, court records show. He was on probation for an arson in Massachusetts at the time of the five fires.

On Aug. 1, state police interviewed Stecher, records show. He first denied, then admitted the crimes.

Stecher had unsuccessfully sought work at the nurseries weeks before the arsons, but he maintained the fires were not revenge, said his attorney, Assistant Public Defender John R. Fagan. A psychologist who analyzed Stecher said the arsons may have been caused by "underlying anger" about the rejections, Fagan said.

Fagan said Stecher would undergo therapy while at the county prison.

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A Bucks County judge has ordered psychiatric treatment for a New Jersey man who held police at bay during a 10-hour armed standoff in Doylestown in June.

Judge Michael J. Kane ordered the outpatient treatment for Glenn Hewitt, 27, of Seaside Park, N.J., after a hearing in county court on Friday. On Jan. 8, Kane found Hewitt not guilty by reason of insanity of burglary, assault and related charges stemming from the June 4 standoff at a house along Old Pebble Hill Road.