February 3, 2024 · Crime & Scandals Horse Racing arson crime

Casino Arsonist Faces Years in Prison for Deaths of 30 Horses

A man pled shamed this calendar week for scope a b attack at Tioga Downs Casino Resort inward New York State. The horrific blaze killed 30 horses.

Boyd H. Fenton, 33, of Athens, Pa., on Mon pleaded shamefaced to third-degree arson, second-degree assault, and 30 counts of animate being cruelty.

The November 9 blast in Nichols, N.Y., also killed a true cat and injured a trainer with second-degree burns.

None of the horses survived. Terrified animals were seen kicking and screaming as the flames spread, according to The New House of York Times.

When Fenton is sentenced on Apr 19, Tioga County District Attorney Kirk Steve Martin wants him to capture the upper limit penalty, according to Lancaster Farming, a regional farm tidings outlet.

The sentence for incendiarism runs betwixt quintuplet and 15 years. Assault leads to septet years behind bars, followed past tierce years of supervision. Animal cruelness convictions track to 15 months to quaternary years inward prison.

Fenton’s sentences hold to follow served at the same time under New York country law, Dean Martin said.

The sentence, yet though it’s the maximum we could offer, stock-still isn’t enough,” Mary Martin added. “But we did the topper we could.”

Martin said authorities were unsure of Fenton’s motive, but the prosecuting officer revealed that Fenton had taken drugs before the incident.

“He thought people were chasing him,” Mary Martin told Lancaster Farming.

Fenton is currently inward custody inward the Tioga County pokey awaiting his sentencing.

Recollections of Blaze

The injured trainer, identified as Edgar Clarke, 68, had grabbed a discharge extinguisher after spotting the flames, but the discharge was too extensive.

“I couldn’t receive inward the barn,” Clarke told The Times. “It was totally engulfed.”

Clarke suffered second-degree burns on his face.

Kayla Gouverneur Morris missed 12 horses inward the blaze, all of which she either trained or owned.

I tried to get under one's skin in the barn, but I simply couldn’t because the go off was just now so red-hot and i simply screamed and screamed,” she recalled inwards an interview with The Times. “I sat for quaternity hours and watched it burning and simply hoped — hoped — that unity of them would amount out.”

Among the horses who died was Better Call Saul, an 11-year-old. Owned by Tsung Dao Lee Morris, he had 24 vocation trips to the winner’s circle with earnings of $267,202.

“He was the sheer(a) love of my life,” Kayla Gouverneur Morris told Harnesslink, a horse-focused publication. “He was cheeky, funny, and ever hungry. He simply wanted to follow loved.”

Donations Raised

Fundraisers were constituted following the mortal blaze.

Jeff Gural, owner of Tioga Downs and chairman of American Racing and Entertainment, matched $100K in donations. In total, several one C thousand dollars were raised for the wedged horsemen and trainers.

Tioga Downs Casino Resort is situated near the New House of York State-Pennsylvania border. It provides gambling casino gaming featuring 890 expansion slot machines and rein in racing. Many of the horses that perished in the blazing were used for harness races.

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