FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 21, 2006
(Columbia, SC) A stakeout on Manchester State Forest has netted a man authorities are calling a serial arsonist. Christopher Lee Hartley, 33, was arrested after a Forestry Commission agent watched him start a fire along Camp MacBoykin Road.
Agents were waiting Tuesday night when Hartley stopped his 2005 Nissan Xterra, got out, and set fire to vegetation on the shoulder of the road. He was arrested without incident.
Firefighters have responded to about 30 woods arson fires in the same area of the state forest over the past two months. Tuesday night’s stake-out operation involved Forestry Commission officers from several midlands counties.
Hartley was booked into the Sumter County Detention Center. Agents expect to formally charge him with several counts of woods arson on Wednesday.
Woods arson is a felony under South Carolina law, carrying a penalty of up to five years in prison.
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Editors/News Directors
Subject Identification:
Christopher Lee Hartley, DOB January 4, 1973
3045 Tara Drive, Sumter, SC 29150
Legal Reference:
SC Code 16-11-170: Wilfull and Malicious Burning