Arsonist to face probation violation charges in March

The probation violation charges against the Culpeper man who intentionally set a deadly house fire last March that killed one of his roommates was continued to March in Culpeper County Circuit Court on Tuesday.

Russell Francis Zuch, now 54, was sentenced to 22 years and three months in prison in November for second-degree murder and arson charges for the March 31 fire that killed 56-year-old Sidney Gray, who died in a house fire on Piney Forest Lane.

Gray died of smoke inhalation and severe burns while another roommate Ferman Thompson, a 62-year-old double-leg amputee, escaped the blaze by rolling out of the home.

Before resigning, Judge John G. Berry accepted a plea agreement in November, reducing Zuch’s original first-degree murder charge to second-degree murder. Zuch was facing 40 years in prison for each charge.

Berry suspended 30 years for the arson charge and 27 years and nine months for the murder charge, leaving Zuch to actively serve 12 years and three months for the murder charge and 10 years for the arson conviction based on the plea deal.

On Tuesday, it was judge Timothy K. Sanner who scheduled Zuch to return to court on March 20 at 9:30 a.m. for revocation based on the May 2005 arson and breaking and entering to commit larceny charges.

The new charges stem from probation violations on the prior arson and breaking and entering convictions.

Court records show that Zuch was on supervised probation at the time of the March 2011 fire. According to Thompson — who was renting the home on Piney Forest Lane — Zuch had only been out of prison just a few months before he deliberately set the March house fire.

Zuch pleaded guilty in September 2007 to breaking and entering and purposely setting fire to the historic James Swan home near the intersection of Bus. 29 and Ira Hoffman Lane in 2005.

For the previous arson charge, Zuch received 10 years with eight suspended. And for the breaking and entering charge, Zuch was sentenced to 20 years with 17 suspended. After serving the five-year term, Zuch was also ordered to serve 25 years of probation.

Based on the law, “the court may revoke the suspension of sentence for any cause the court deems sufficient that occurred at any time within the probation period, or within the period of suspension fixed by the court.”