On Tuesday, Oct. 11, the Colorado Supreme Court ruled that it
will let stand a state appeals court decision that tosses the
sentence of arsonist Terry Barton.

In late 2002, Barton agreed to a plea bargain that gave her a
12-year sentence for setting Colorado’s largest wildfire in the
summer of that year.

The Hayman Fire burned 138,000 acres in four counties and
destroyed 132 homes and 466 outbuildings. Hundreds of people in
Teller, Park, Jefferson and Douglas counties were evacuated as
firefighters fought the blaze that cost more than $39 million to
fight and has cost several more millions for on-going recovery,
which is expected to take more than 10 years.

When Barton accepted the plea bargain, Judge Edward Colt added
six years to her sentence for aggravated circumstances. He said
that as a forest service employee, Barton should have known better
than to burn a letter in a fire ring when the forest was so ripe
for a wildfire.

The Colorado Court of Appeals ruled late last year that
aggravated circumstances could only be determined by a jury and
that Judge Colt should have recused himself from the case because
he was personally affected by the fire. Colt was forced to evacuate
from his home for a day and knew personally several people who were
evacuated for longer periods of time, something he mentioned at
Barton’s sentencing hearing.

In upholding the lower court’s ruling, the Colorado Supreme
Court has put the ball back into district court, leaving
prosecutors with several options, including:

* defend the original plea bargain and sentence before a
jury;

* toss the plea bargain altogether and file charges against
Barton in each of the four judicial districts that suffered from
the fire; or,

* go along with the ruling and cut six years off Barton’s
sentence.

Barton is serving a 6-year federal sentence for arson on federal
lands concurrently with the state sentence. Once she serves the
federal sentence she would come back to Colorado to serve the state
sentence. If six years are lopped off the state sentence she could
be released in 2008.