Lang
7/8/22
An Iowa City arsonist has been given a suspended sentence.
56-year-old Douglas Johnson of Plum Street entered guilty pleas to two charges on Friday.
According to Iowa Courts Online, Johnson reached a plea deal with prosecutors that included a two-year suspended sentence on a 3rd Degree Criminal Mischief charge and a one-year suspended sentence on a 1st Degree Arson charge. Johnson was also fined $1,285.
If given the maximum sentence on both charges, Johnson would have faced 27 years in prison.
Iowa City Police and firefighters were called to the Waterfront Hy-Vee just after 8pm last Christmas for a fire near the loading dock. Firefighters told investigators an accelerant had been put on the blaze, which caused an estimated $1,000 in damage.
Security video shows Johnson walking toward the loading dock just before 5:45pm, then walking away quickly northbound three minutes later.
Johnson was found just after 8:15 that night near the corner of Boyrum Street and Hollywood Boulevard. Police say he later admitted to being in the area of the fire, and that he smelled of an accelerant.
Johnson was given a suspended sentence last January on assault charges after he attacked two University of Iowa employees. Police say Johnson hit two people in the back of the head unprovoked last November outside the Seamons Center on South Capitol Street.