EC man gets 15 years prison for setting house fire while seven people were sleeping inside
Feb. 6—EAU CLAIRE — An Eau Claire man will spend 15 years in prison for setting a house on fire last year while seven people were sleeping inside.
"We're lucky we're not here for something more tragic today," Judge Sarah Harless said Monday during Thomas T. Hicks' sentencing hearing. "This was incredibly dangerous behavior."
Harless ordered Hicks, 42, 735 Hobart St., to spend 10 years on extended supervision following his release from prison.
As conditions of supervision, Hicks must pay $360,788 in restitution, undergo any recommended programming or treatment, and have no contact with the victims.
Hicks was sentenced on a felony count of arson and seven felony counts of second-degree recklessly endangering safety.
Eau Claire County Deputy District Attorney Angela Beranek was seeking 15 years in prison for Hicks with 25 years of extended supervision.
"It is hard to imagine a crime more serious than setting a house on fire while seven innocent people were sleeping inside," she said.
Hicks took no steps to wake or warn them, Beranek said.
"That's about as serious as you can get," she said.
Beranek noted that Hicks was convicted of arson of a building in January 2010 in Oneida County, where he received five years of probation.
"He is someone who will do this again," she said. "He is someone who hasn't learned from the past."
Karl Schmidt, Hicks' defense attorney, recommended seven years in prison and 15 years of extended supervision.
"He does not have the ability to think through his problems," Schmidt said of Hicks. "He's not able to think about the consequences of his actions if he acts out."
Hicks didn't give any thought to the people who were sleeping inside the residence, Schmidt said.
"I don't think the goal of Mr. Hicks was to hurt anybody," he said.
Hicks told Harless he is remorseful for his actions.
"We're here because of my bad decision making. I have no one to blame, only myself," he said.
"I wish I could undo the things I did," Hicks said.
According to the criminal complaint:
Hicks set his residence at 735 Hobart St. on fire in the middle of the night on Jan. 21, 2022, without warning the people inside. His stepson and six other people escaped the burning residence without injury, but one complained of smoke inhalation.
Firefighters and police responded to the fire at about 12:54 a.m. that night.
On a report that the arson suspect left the house in a blue pickup truck, an Eau Claire police officer stopped the vehicle near Madison Street and Oxford Avenue and identified Hicks as the driver. Hicks had a lighter in his jacket pocket and his clothing smelled of smoke, the officer stated.
Hicks admitted to police that he started the fire because he was angry with his wife and "my mindset ain't right." His wife texted him that she was done with their marriage and that triggered him to start the fire, he said.
He dumped gasoline on a bed and carpet in his wife's bedroom, used a lighter to start the fire and ran out of the house as he heard a smoke detector going off. Both Hicks and those who escaped the house told police that he did nothing to alert people inside about the fire.
Hicks' wife was not at home when the fire began, but arrived later to talk to police. She believed her husband must have started the fire because he'd done it before in a previous marriage.
On Feb. 1, 2022 — less than two weeks after the Eau Claire fire — Hicks' wife filed for divorce. During a June hearing, Eau Claire County Court Commissioner Wendy Sue Johnson declared that the marriage was "irretrievably broken" and granted the divorce, based on online court records. Among assets discussed was a $50,000 insurance payment for the home destroyed by fire.
