Melville arsonist jailed 42 months

A Saskatchewan provincial court judge has sentenced a 44-year-old Melville man, who went on an arsonous rampage last month, to 42 months in prison.

Michael Hahn pleaded guilty September 12 in Melville Provincial Court to one count of arson with disregard for human life, three counts of arson causing damage to property and one count of careless use of a firearm.

In a joint submission by the Crown, represented by Darryl Bode, and Melville defence attorney David Kreklewich, the Court heard that on the evening of August 13, Hahn went to the house of his ex-wife’s new boyfriend, blasted out the back window of the man’s pickup truck in the driveway with a shotgun, then broke into the home also using the shotgun on the back door and set the house on fire.

Police responded to complaints of gunfire and found the house aflame.

Hahn then went on to set fires at a farm owned by a family member whom he had had a dispute with and another neighbour outside of Melville before returning to the city, breaking into his ex-wife’s apartment and setting it on fire.

All of the structures except the apartment building received significant damage.

Sometime during the spree, Hahn had called his current girlfriend and attempted to establish an alibi, a fact she revealed to police during the initial investigation. The Crown used that information during a bail hearing in August to counter the defence position that Hahn had suffered a diabetic blackout and did not remember setting the fires. At that hearing, Judge Ross Green denied bail calling the crimes “shocking.”

At the sentencing hearing Monday, the Crown submitted the severity of the crimes, the reckless disregard for human safety had anybody been present at any of the fire locations and the duration of the spree, which took place over several hours, as aggravating circumstances.

The defence relied mainly on Hahn’s lack of criminal record as a mitigating factor suggesting the behaviour was aberrant. He also cited the early guilty plea and his client’s remorse.

Judge Patrick Reis accepted the joint submission of three-and-a-half years less 44 days time-served in remand.

The Crown stayed seven other charges including two for break and enter, two for arson, two firearms related offences and one assault.