Release Date: Wednesday, April 28, 2010 4:50 p.m.
Harvey L. Bryant, Commonwealth’s Attorney for the City of Virginia Beach, announced today that Dustin Lee Hess, 23 years old, previously residing in the 4700 block of Lonewillow Lane, Virginia Beach, Virginia, and having pled guilty on January 26, 2010, was sentenced today by Circuit Court Judge Edward W. Hanson to a total of forty-five (45) years in the Virginia Department of Corrections on charges of four (4) counts of Burglary, three (3) counts of Grand Larceny, one (1) count of Conspiracy, and one (1) count of Arson. Judge Hanson ordered the defendant to serve ten (10) years of said sentence and suspended thirty-five (35) years conditioned upon thirty-five (35) years of good behavior, indefinite supervised probation, and no contact with the victims. The defendant’s active ten (10) year prison sentence was nearly double the time at the high end of the sentencing guidelines.
Had this matter gone to trial, the Commonwealth’s evidence would have proved that on September 24, 2009, the defendant Dustin Lee Hess and the co-defendant Joshua Hutchins went to the AAAA Self Storage business located at 4656 Honeygrove Road in the City of Virginia Beach at approximately 4:15 am. The two men cut the locks from multiple storage units and stole property stored inside. The defendants then set two of the units on fire by pouring gasoline inside the units, lighting it, and shutting the doors. The storage units were attached to an on-site apartment inhabited by the facility manager. At the time that the defendants lit the building on fire, the manager was at home asleep with her two small children. She was awakened by the sound of the Virginia Beach firefighters attempting to contain the blaze. The manager and her family escaped the fire uninjured.
Hess confessed his involvement in the theft and arson to at least three of his friends, who were later interviewed by police and detailed the incriminating statements made by the defendant. In addition, security video at AAAA captured the offense, and pawn shop records tied Hess to the stolen property. The fires set by Hess and Hutchins damaged a total of 12 storage units. The loss to the customers and to the storage unit business caused by the fires is still being calculated; the total is estimated to exceed $150,000.00.
Hess was on probation at the time he committed the offense, having been convicted in the Virginia Beach Circuit Court in 2005 of Abduction and Use of a Firearm in the Commission of Abduction.
Co-defendant Joshua Hutchins is scheduled to be sentenced on May 4th, 2010.
The case was prosecuted by Associate Commonwealth’s Attorney Wendy R. Alexander. Please call Julie Pickell at 385-8545, if additional information is desired.
Similar Press Releases: arson, burglary, conspiracy, grand larceny, Harvey Bryant
