A former member of the Russellville/Lohman Fire Protection District pleaded guilty to charges he faced for setting fires in that area of Cole County in 2021 and this year.
During a hearing before Cole County Judge Dan Green, Joshua Gerstner, 19, pleaded guilty to three felony counts of knowingly burning. He was placed on five years supervised probation and must complete a treatment program that's approved by Probation and Parole.
A Cole County Sheriff's Department report states investigators found Gerstner set the first fire Nov. 30, 2021. A barn and hay bales were reported on fire in the area of Route AA and Scrivner Road. Gerstner was the person who reported the fire.
A subsequent investigation by the sheriff's department found Gerstner was close to the scene or was the reporting person of multiple suspicious fires.
During an interview with authorities, Gerstner admitted to starting the Nov. 30 fire, which destroyed a wooden barn and bales of hay belonging to his girlfriend's family.
Investigators said he later confessed to setting a grass fire Feb. 14 in the 11000 block of Scrivner and another such fire Feb. 15 at Route AA and Curtman Road.
When asked why he set the fires, authorities said Gerstner told them he set the November fire because he was mad at his mother and the other two fires "because he was bored."