Teenage former firefighter Cody Wagenseller…
Teenage former firefighter Cody Wagenseller sentenced after pleading guilty to string of Pennridge area arson fires
Cody Wagenseller
PUBLISHED: March 26, 2014 at 10:36 a.m. | UPDATED: September 24, 2021 at 3:36 a.m.
Cody Wagenseller, who was a probationary member of the Sellersville Fire Department and a senior at Pennridge High School when he was arrested in September, pleaded guilty Tuesday, March 25, to a string of arson fires.
Bucks County Judge Rea Boylan accepted the district attorney's office's recommendation of a negotiated sentence of one day less than a year to one day less than two years in county prison, 10 years' probation and payment of restitution, saying she was taking into account factors including the 18-year-old's age, but warned that any probationary violations could lead to a lengthy term in state prison.
Wagenseller, of the 200 block of Parkridge Drive in Perkasie, will also have to have a mental health evaluation. Conditions attached to the probation include a ban on being part of any fire company and not being allowed to have contact with any of the victims, including Pennridge School District.
The arson string in the end of August and beginning of September 2013 included five in West Rockhill – a brush fire on Catch Basin Road, one at a building owned by West Rockhill Township on Ridge Valley Road and three in trash or recycling containers at Elkay Manufacturing on Old State Road, at West Rockhill Elementary School and the West Rockhill Recycling Center on Ridge Road – a fire in a trash container behind Pennridge South Middle School in Perkasie; a fire in Richland Township in which $90,000 of hay was burned; and a fire at a vacant former factory in Sellersville owned by Sellersville Borough and to which about 200 firefighters from a number of area fire companies responded, investigators said in court documents.
'This could have been devastating,' Boylan said, 'and certainly, a community was fearful because people didn't know what was going on.'
In answer to Boylan's questions, Wagenseller said he has a juvenile record and has been diagnosed with mental health conditions.
He said he is working on completing high school and wants to go to college to get an engineering degree.
In response to a question of why he started the fires, Wagenseller put the blame on peer pressure from Adam Weaver, who was also charged in the incidents.
Wagenseller also said, however, that he realizes he was 'in the wrong state of mind' and cannot use peer pressure as an excuse.
Weaver, 20, of the 100 block of East Ridge Avenue, was also brought to the courthouse March 25 and is pleading guilty, court officials said, but his attorney had another case that day so the plea and sentencing would be held either later March 25 or on March 26.
Outside the courtroom following Wagenseller's sentencing, Sean Gresh, his attorney, characterized Wagenseller as a confused young man who now realizes he made wrong choices and is sorry for what he did.
The amount of restitution owed for the fires is still being finalized.
Both Wagenseller and Weaver have been in prison since September after failing to post bail.
Wagenseller was a probationary member of the Sellersville Fire Department and Weaver a former member, investigators said.
The soonest Wagenseller will be eligible for probation is after a day less than a year in prison, but Boylan said what he writes in an assignment she gave him to write an essay about the decisions he's made, how he could have done things differently, the impact of his actions and how he plans to live his life going forward will have a big influence on when parole is actually granted.
Wagenseller still has a chance to turn his life around, Boylan said.
'I hope you take advantage of these opportunities,' Boylan told him.
'I understand,' Wagenseller said.