Shayne Davis
/ file photo
SHAYNE DAVIS -- A Syracuse man has been sentenced to 25 years in state prison and 5 years post supervision for setting the house fire that killed 90-year-old Fred Brown earlier this year.
Shayne Davis, 32, was sentenced Tuesday in Onondaga County Court. He had previously plead guilty to first-degree manslaughter and second-degree arson. Davis originally had been charged with second-degree murder.
Davis admitted setting the June 18 fire that injured Brown in his house in the city's Tipperary Hill neighborhood. Brown died at a Syracuse hospital three days later. Authorities say Davis started five other fires in the same neighborhood from early May to the blaze that killed Brown.
Davis must also pay more than 36,000 in restitution to fire victims. Brown's family did not apply for resititution, but Assistant District Attorney Timothy Hennigan read a letter from them in court. Brown was remembered as a "kind, thoughtful, intelligent, family man."
Brown's family says he loved spending time with his nieces, nephews and their children. Brown survived World War II, the deaths of his parents, and siblings, and overcame several health issues. His family says for him to die because of a fire was "beyond imaginable."
(Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.)
