BELLEVILLE, Ill. (AP) - A southwestern Illinois man has been sentenced to nine and a half years in prison for his role in a string of arson fires and break-ins.

St. Clair County Chief Judge John Baricevic sentenced 20-year-old Nicholas Haegele of O’Fallon on Wednesday on three counts each of arson and burglary. A co-defendant, 24-year-old Bryan Boide of Belleville, already had been sentenced to a decade in prison.

Haegele and Boide were arrested in May after a property owner saw them walking around with flashlights on his property. The man grabbed his shotgun, held the pair at gunpoint and walked them to a neighbor’s home where police were called.

Prosecutors had sought a 14-year term for Haegele.

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