KEYSTONE, Colo. (AP) — A Denver man was ordered to pay restitution more than a year after accidentally sparking a wildfire at a Colorado shooting range.
The Summit Daily News reports Summit County Court ordered Bryson Robert Jones to pay nearly $53,000 to the U.S. Forest Service for causing a wildfire after firing explosive tracer rounds Oct. 8, 2016, at the Summit County Shooting Range.
The fire cost the Forest Service about $161,000, but the agency thought it would be magnanimous to ask for a third of that.
The district attorney's office says Jones began making payments in July after the office accepted his guilty plea to misdemeanor arson in January.
Jones could have been charged with a more serious crime, but staying on the scene and owning what happened likely won him leniency.
