Ex-UCI Professor Sentenced To 14 Years In Prison For Arsons
SANTA ANA (CBS/AP) — A former UC Irvine professor has been sentenced to 14 years and four months in prison for setting a series of fires at his late son's high school, a school administrator's home and nearby park after the boy committed suicide.
Judge Gregg L. Prickett sentenced 49-year-old Rainer Reinscheid at a hearing Thursday in Santa Ana.
The pharmaceutical sciences professor was arrested July 24, 2012 in Mason Park Preserve after Irvine officers saw him allegedly trying to set a blaze with newspaper and lighter fluid, according to Deputy District Attorney Andrew Katz.
Reinscheid, who set the fires between July 4 and July 24 of last year, pleaded guilty July 9 to one count of arson of another's property, two counts of arson of a structure and three counts each of arson of forest land and attempted arson, along with a misdemeanor count of resisting or obstructing an officer.
Reinscheid's 14-year-old son hanged himself in Irvine's Mason Park Preserve in March 2012 after being disciplined at school, according to Katz.
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