Fort Mill landscaper sentenced for setting neighbor’s home on fire after issuing threats

A South Carolina landscaper who burned down a neighbor’s home after threatening him for money has been sentenced to 12 years in prison.

Jacob Lee Cabasal, 43, pleaded guilty late Thursday in York County court to two counts of second-degree arson and harassment. South Carolina Circuit Judge Dan Hall sentenced Cabasal to 12 years.

Cabasal was caught on home security video in March that was played in court. The video showed Cabasal pouring gasoline on the doors of a home belonging to Herman Pringle, a neighbor who served five years in Afghanistan.

Cabasal had threatened Pringle and another neighbor with demands they hire him at exorbitant rates to do landscaping, 16th Circuit Senior Assistant Solicitor Matthew Hogge said in court. When the neighbors refused, Cabasal became irate, sent threatening text messages, and burned Pringle’s home, Hogge said in court.

The gasoline on the doors showed that the fire could have been deadly for Pringle and his neighbors, because the fires were set in the only egress points of the home, Hogge said. The homes are built just feet from each other, Hogge said.

The fire caused an explosion, and another house was damaged, Hogge said.

“A lot of people could have died that night,” Hogge said. “In the worst imaginable way — being burned alive.”

No one was hurt in the fires. Cabasal threatened Pringle by text message just minutes before the fires were set, but he had left the house for his own safety and was not inside the home when the fires were set, Hogge said.

Hogge asked for a severe sentence close to the maximum of 25 years in prison that was part of a guilty plea agreement with Cabasal.

Suspect taunted police after fleeing

Cabasal fled York County after the fires but used social media to try and taunt Fort Mill police who were seeking him, Hogge said.

After the fires, Cabasal changed his Facebook profile to a photo from the film, “Catch Me if You Can,” about a con artist/thief on the run, Hogge said.

Cabasal was not in custody until a week later when he turned himself in to a hospital in Michigan.

Pringle, whose home was destroyed, said in court he represented the entire neighborhood who was terrified of violence before Cabasal was caught.

Pringle asked for a severe sentence because of the angst Cabasal caused among a close knit neighborhood on Lily Lake Lane in the Waterside by the Catawba subdivision.

“People were terrified that their houses would be burned down with their kids and their families inside,” Pringle said in court. “The community was terrorized.”

Suspect is bipolar, testimony showed

Cabasal did not speak in court other than to plead guilty and say he was on medication after a diagnosis of bipolar disorder.

His lawyer, Cassity Brewer of the York County Public Defender’s Office, said Cabasal was sorry and had been diagnosed as bipolar before the incident. A doctor had examined Cabasal while he was in jail pending trial and found him competent to face the charges against him, testimony showed.

Brewer said Cabasal showed anger unusual to his character by setting the fires and asked for the minimum of three years in prison for the arson charges. Brewer said Cabasal told her he knew that Pringle was not inside the house when the fires were set.