Colorado man sentenced in Nevada power plant fire initially described as terror attack
A Colorado man was sentenced Wednesday to prison in Nevada following his arrest last January for setting his car afire at a remote facility in what authorities initially characterized as a terror attack on the electric system serving several Las Vegas Strip casinos.
Mohammed Reza Mesmarian, 35, was sentenced to two to 10 years following his plea in November to guilty but mentally ill on charges of felony arson and property destruction in the incident at a remote desert solar array about 25 miles (40 kilometers) northeast of downtown Las Vegas.
“This was not so much an act of terrorism as a person going through personal issues during COVID, the loss of a marriage and his business,” Mesmarian’s attorney, Jeffrey Nicholson, told The Associated Press after sentencing. Nicholson said he sought probation, but he called Clark County District Court Judge Ronald Israel’s sentence “a good and fair decision.”
Mesmarian received credit for nearly a year already served in custody and could be paroled in early 2024.
Read more: Denver Post