PROVO, Utah — After pleading guilty to aggravated arson and assault by prisoner, a man responsible for an arson fire in Provo on Christmas day in 2022 was sentenced Thursday.
Calliope Mlynar, 20, will serve a maximum sentence of five years to life in prison, plus pay a $10,000 fine for the aggravated arson charge. He was also sentenced up to 5 years in state prison and fined $5,000 for the assault charge. The sentences will be served consecutively.
He will also pay full restitution of $55,000.
“I believe based on all the facts and circumstances Mr. Mlynar intended to kill people," the judge said during Mlynar's sentencing. “I don’t believe you have any empathy to any of these people and you haven’t demonstrated any to the court.”
When given a chance to speak at the sentencing hearing, Mlynar said he did not believe he should go to prison.
“As far as the fire that I’m charged with, I was not trying to kill anybody. Did not believe that anybody would die, and nobody was even hurt in the slightest from that incident," he said.
Mlynar, who smiled at the victims as he walked out of court, was arrested after setting a fire on Christmas morning at the Centennial Apartment Complex in Provo.
“It was easily the scariest experience that I’ve ever been through in my life," said victim Claire H. "That still affects me to this day.”
Claire gave emotional testimony in court, saying her and her 5-year-old daughter's home was destroyed in the fire.
“I was able to wrap my daughter in a blanket and evacuate the home safely," she described. I, um… will never ever forget that night. I’ll never forget escaping the fire with my daughter.”
Mlynar's arrest was made in connection to other mysterious fires that had occurred in the city between August and December 2022.
The Gleave family's home also went up in flames on the morning of Dec. 20.
“It’s difficult to express the fear we felt, seeing unrelenting flames right outside our window," Luke Gleave testified. "The greatest loss we’ve experienced because of this attack was losing our sense of security.
"How do you go to bed after that?"
Officials report Mlynar has acknowledged some responsibility in six other fires, all of which were started with gasoline.
Mlynar was a resident of the apartment complex where he started the fire, however, other fires he is suspected to have started were completely random, investigators said. After his arrest on December 27, the mysterious fires throughout the city stopped, Chief Lynn Schofield of Provo explained.
Investigators spent hundreds of hours working on the case, but ultimately a key fob used to access the laundry room at the apartment complex was the thing that tied Mlynar to the fires.
Officials said the fires were started in the middle of the night, when people were asleep. The timing was especially concerning and shook the community.
“That’s really the biggest damage here is their sense of safety and security within the walls of their own home," Schofield said. "Because they were totally random, all happened at night, all happened where they were most vulnerable and asleep. So it’s really devastated the sense of security in that neighborhood.”
