Man who set park fire gets 5 years in prison

A 29-year-old Harrison man has been sentenced to five years in prison for setting a wildfire in the Buffalo National River area to conceal the fact that he was illegally harvesting timber on National Park Service land, according to court filings.

Jacob Edward Walls was indicted by a federal grand jury in March 2020 for setting a fire near Pruitt in Newton County on Feb. 5, 2019, according to a news release from acting U.S. Attorney David Clay Fowlkes.

Walls pleaded guilty to one count under 18 U.S. Code § 1855, which covers setting timber afire on federal lands.

Walls’ five-year sentence will be followed by three years of supervised release. He was also ordered to pay $12,494 in restitution.

U.S. District Judge P.K. Holmes III presided over the sentencing hearing Wednesday in federal court in Fort Smith.

According to the indictment, near the location of the fire, a park ranger saw a log splitter, a pair of leather gloves and a red plastic “gas can.” The name “Walls” was written on one of the gloves and on the can.

“A large oak tree was also found partially cut up and split for firewood,” according to the indictment.

Walls was arrested the day after the fire. He told investigators that he set the fire on the parkland, went to get something to eat, then discovered when he returned that the fire was larger than he intended, according to the indictment. Walls didn’t report the fire because he didn’t want anyone to know he was there, according to the court document.

Investigators determined that Walls set the Feb. 5, 2019, fire “to destroy or consume debris he was creating from illegally harvesting timber on National Park Service lands,” according to the indictment.

The wildfire burned about 3 acres.

The flames came within 112 yards of Walls’ cabin and within 35 yards of an historic house known as Old Indian House, according to another court filing.

Walls is currently serving an eight-year sentence in an Arkansas prison on a burglary charge.