A mentally challenged man has been sentenced to 25 to 59 months in prison after pleading guilty to charges he started fires that destroyed an adult novelty store and partially damaged a hotel.
Tiberiu Mugur Mironescu, 30, told the judge before the sentencing earlier this month that he was sorry for starting the fire, according to the Pocono Record.
Mironescu, who reportedly has trouble understanding the world around him, had targeted the Hotel Jonas on Route 534 on Sept. 3, when he started the fire there. Guests and one of the hotel’ owners scrambled to get out of the structure which suffered about $200,000 damage.
Mironescu had also admitted to starting fires at the New World Voyagers adult novelty store, nearly a mile away from the hotel on Route 534 on Oct. 17 and 23. No one was hurt in the fires. He was captured on Oct. 23.
The hotel fire was the result of boredom, Mironescu said, but admitted the adult store fire was the result of “moral outrage,” adding that he felt the store was “wrong” for selling sex-related products and that people wouldn’t have sex if he burned down the shop.
Mironescu must now undergo mental evaluation as part of his sentence as well as any necessary mental treatment as a condition of parole.
Although the store was destroyed, the hotel reopened eight weeks later.
