Emmett man gets 85 years to life for arson

A man convicted of setting fires in two churches has been sentenced to 85 years to life in prison.

The Idaho Press-Tribune reports ( http://bit.ly/1F6gbwt ) Bradley Thomasson, 42, was sentenced Monday after a jury convicted the Emmett resident in March of the arson of the Community Bible Church and First Baptist Church in April 2013.

Both churches had been significantly damaged by water, smoke and heat. Damage costs totaled more than $2 million. No one was injured in the incidents.

Thomasson’s convictions follow those of co-defendant Charles Dorahush Jr., 45, who pleaded guilty in September to two counts of first-degree arson. Dorahush was sentenced in December to 25 years in prison, with a minimum of five years to serve before he is eligible for parole. He is serving his sentence at the Idaho State Correctional Institution in Kuna.

The two men torched the two churches — two blocks from each other near downtown Emmett — on April 27, 2013, to cover up overnight burglaries. Authorities said the pair hoped to find cash and other valuables in the churches, which were closed for several months for repairs.

Thomasson and Dorahush lived only a short time in Emmett, and most of what most residents know of them came from what they learned in news reports after the arsons.

That information included that Thomasson was convicted of the 1989 murders of his adoptive parents in Lewiston, when he was in high school, and sentenced to 20 years to life. He was placed on parole and released from prison in January 2012.