Ex-student gets jail for arson

YORK, Pa. - A schizophrenic man dismissed from a graduate program has admitted he set a professor's Shrewsbury house on fire while the man and his children were inside.

Garrett Alder, 27, pleaded guilty but mentally ill to arson and reckless endangerment in York County Court on Friday. He was sentenced to four to 10 years in prison for the August 2006 crime.

The victim, Bradley Erford, said at least five professors at Loyola College in Maryland had feared Alder, who was dismissed in March 2005 from a graduate program in counseling.

"Every one of us knew that Mr. Alder was very likely to physically harm, even murder, any of us and our families at any time," Erford wrote in a victim-impact statement.

Erford and his two teenagers escaped the fire unharmed. His wife was away.

Alder was arrested in the woods behind Erford's house after the fire. Authorities found a corner of the garage ablaze when they arrived at 6:30 a.m. - but said the fire had been set in four places.

In court Friday, Alder apologized and said he hoped to stay on his medication and become a productive member of society.

"I was never properly diagnosed before the fire," said Alder, now known to be schizophrenic and bipolar with narcissistic and paranoid traits.

Judge Michael J. Brillhart ordered him to comply with any prison medical directives and to avoid contact with Erford, his family, and the four other Loyola teachers.