A Waukesha man has been sentenced to prison for starting a fire at his ex-girlfriend's house
A Waukesha man has been sentenced to five years in prison in an arson case from 2018.
Mark Pitzka, 52, was found guilty of the felony by a jury on April 28. At the May 16 sentencing hearing, Pitzka was sentenced to five years in prison followed by 10 years of extended supervision. Waukesha County Circuit Judge Laura Lau ordered that Pitzka maintain complete sobriety while serving his entire sentence.
Additionally, Pizka was fined $12,978 and ordered to pay $5,473 in restitution to the victim.
"My client maintains his innocence and will continue to seek whatever legal remedies he has available to him," Pitzka's attorney, Mark Bowers, said in an email May 17.
According to the criminal complaint, Pitzka and the victim had dated on and off for years before breaking up days before the fire. The victim had started dating someone else and was in the process of doing renovations on a house she planned to flip in the 1300 block of Highway 83 in Hartland.
The victim discovered smoke in the home on June 29, 2018. This followed other acts of vandalism in previous days, the complaint said.
Two days later, a fire was reportedly started at the victim’s new boyfriend’s home in Hustisford, according to the complaint. Pitzka currently faces a separate charge for this incident in Dodge County.
An investigation revealed that Pitzka bought a six-pack of fireplace starter logs at Blain's Farm & Fleet in Waukesha several days before the fires. Two logs, one burned and one unburned, were found inside the Hustisford home. The color of the plastic on the log matched the color of a plastic attached to two water bottles with light petroleum distillate, which is the same as fuel found in a lighter and other camp fuels, according to the complaint.
Police spoke with Pitzka twice, once shortly after the fires and again in February 2019 as evidence mounted. On the second interrogation, Pitzka denied ever having purchased fireplace logs, the complaint said. That's when investigators confronted him with surveillance footage showing him acquiring the logs at a Waukesha store.
The complaint said he became "very quiet" at that point, but continued to deny his involvement in any of the fires.
Drew Dawson can be reached at ddawson@jrn.com or (262) 289-1324.
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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Waukesha man sentenced for 2018 arson of ex-girlfriend's home
