By Nick Draper
Idaho Falls Post Register
Copyright2007The Post Register
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An Idaho Falls man who allegedly set fire to his parents’ house in the fall entered a plea agreement Monday.
Craig Tanner, 33, pleaded guilty to second-degree arson in front of district Judge Richard T. St. Clair at the Bonneville County Courthouse.
The Bonneville County prosecutor’s office reduced the first-degree arson count it originally charged Tanner with and dropped a burglary count in exchange for Tanner’s plea.
Tanner, who suffers from paranoid schizophrenia, admitted to lighting a fire in his parents’ basement at 9:31 p.m. Sept. 27 at 2175 Tasman Ave., saying he was having suicidal thoughts the day before and needed attention.
“I didn’t want to commit suicide,” he said at the hearing, adding he was feeling helpless and oppressed. “It was a cry for help.”
According to a police report, Tanner approached two Idaho Falls police officers at 9:28 p.m. outside the police station the night of the blaze and asked whether the fire department was responding to a fire on Tasman Avenue.
The officers said they didn’t know about a fire and sent Tanner up the street to alert the fire department. But after hearing the fire call on their radio, the officers found Tanner and asked him how he knew about it, the report said. Tanner said he knew about it because he had set it.
He told one officer he started the fire because his parents kept committing him to mental institutions, the report said, and that he’d rather do time in jail instead of going to a hospital.
According to the report, Tanner broke into the house through a back window and drenched the stairs leading to the basement with gas.
Knowing that his parents were out of town attending another son’s wedding, Tanner then lit a match and left the house through the garage door, the report said.
He told the officers he hadn’t taken his medication that night, according to the report.
Since the blaze, Tanner has been committed to the State Hospital South mental institution in Blackfoot, where he passed a competency evaluation, allowing him to participate in court proceedings as long as he is on his medication.
According to the plea agreement, the prosecutor’s office recommended that Tanner be put on probation for five years with the mental health court - which would ensure he stays on medication and continues treatment for his mental disorder - instead of serving the maximum penalty of 15 years in prison and/or a $75,000 fine.
He also would remain at the state hospital in until a doctor deems he is fit to leave.
His sentencing hearing in front of St. Clair is scheduled for March 12.