Ecoterrorist Sentenced in Utah Arson

Harrison David Burrows was sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison for his role in an arson at Ellsworth Farms, an animal husbandry building on the campus of Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah.

Burrows, 18, pleaded guilty to destruction of property by fire and is scheduled to turn himself in on January 28.  He was also ordered to pay $75,898 in restitution by the U.S. District Judge in Salt Lake City.

Burrows and co-defendant Joshua Stephen Demmitt, who earlier pleaded guilty to the same charge and received the same sentence, admitted setting the July 2004 fire on behalf of the Animal Liberation Front, the nation's most active extreme animal rights movement. "We started the fires to make a political statement on behalf of the Animal Liberation Front," Burrows indicated in a statement to the court. 

Burrows faced up to up to 20 years in prison for setting the blaze, which caused an estimated $30,000 in damages.  However, federal prosecutors asked the judge to reduce the sentence because he cooperated with authorities.