By Tonia Noe-Rose - Staff Writer
The second man responsible for a 10-day crime spree in 2007 was formally sentenced Friday to 20 years in prison.
Circuit Judge Beth Maze agreed with the commonwealth’s recommendations and sentenced Brandon McWain to spend the next two decades behind bars for burning the home of Dale Kelsey and the home invasion and burglary at the residence of Darlene Caskey.
McWain stood before his victim’s family members as they were given the chance to speak toward his criminal actions.
Dale Kesley’s daughter approached him while holding a photograph of her two daughters. “See this, you burned down their grandpa’s house just seven months before he died,” she said. “You took so much from my babies. My dad raised me and he was a great man. I knew you before you got into drugs and you weren’t like this. I know you didn’t realize whose house you burned down, but now you do.”
McWain pleaded guilty in September to the arson and burglary charges and also charges of receiving stolen property out of Montgomery County. His accomplice was formally sentenced Sept. 5, also to 20 years.
McWain’s attorney Michael Leibson told Judge Maze and the Kelsey family that McWain did plead guilty to the arson charge, but continues to deny that he was at the home the day it burned.
“He did admit to being there, but he didn’t burn the house down,” Leibson told Judge Maze. “He has admitted to all of it because that 10 days has changed his life forever, and he is ready and willing to move forward with his life to become a productive citizen once he has completed his prison sentence.”
McWain was then given a chance to say a few words to the Kelsey family.
“I had no personal vendetta against anyone at that time," he said. “I am very sorry to hear that your dad passed away and about your girls. I wasn’t there when the house burned, but I still want to apologize for everything that I did do.”
Darlene Caskey did not appear at the sentencing hearing.
According to Assistant Commonwealth Attorney Ron Goldy, first-degree arson is considered by the department of corrections as a violent offense and requires the defendant to serve 85 percent of the prison term before being eligible for parole. The 23-year-old McWain will be 40.
