Man guilty in Okmulgee fire

OKMULGEE, Okla. (AP) -- A Hominy man has been sentenced to 30 years in prison after pleading guilty to three counts of arson for a fire that destroyed buildings in Okmulgee's historic downtown district last year, court documents show.

Donald Gean Miller, 46, entered the pleas on Wednesday. Okmulgee County District Attorney Tom Giulioli said the 30-year sentence means Miller has received a total of 305 years in prison sentences as a result of his plea and previous convictions.

"I figured we would be trying him until we ran out of cases, especially as harsh as sentences as the jury previously gave him,"

Giulioli said. "But I think he probably had all the judicial system he wanted."

Miller pleaded guilty to second-degree arson, conspiracy to commit arson and arson endangering human life, court records indicate. He also pleaded guilty to knowingly concealing stolen property and several other drug counts, Giulioli said.

Miller already was serving a 275-year sentence. He had received 200 years for escape from the county jail, 50 years for injury to a public building and 25 years for the manufacture of controlled drugs, the district attorney said.

Miller admitted to conspiring with William Allen LeGrand to set fire to two buildings, documents show. The June 8, 1999, blaze destroyed half a block in the town's historic district, including evidence and files in the district attorney investigators' offices, authorities said.

Miller later escaped from the county jail, sawing his way out of the shower room of the lockup on Sept. 4, 1999, authorities said.

He was recaptured about three weeks later at a Checotah motel.

Earlier this year, LeGrand, 31, pleaded guilty and received three concurrent 30-year sentences for three arson convictions in connection with the same fire.

For LeGrand's escape conviction, Humphrey also ordered a 35-year sentence to run consecutively with the arson counts.

Two weeks after the fire, LeGrand escaped from the Okmulgee County Jail. He was taken into custody in a stolen car July 11 after making an illegal U-turn in Orange, Calif.