Judge sentences KU arsonist to 5 years

!A judge this morning sentenced a mentally ill former Kansas University student to five years in prison for a March 2004 arson spree that included a fire set in the stacks of Watson Library on the KU campus.Judge Robert Fairchild sentenced David Ryan Jay to three years in prison for the fire at the library, plus one year each for a fire at the dental office of Keith Jones, 647 Country Club Terrace, and at Clinton Parkway Nursery & Garden Store, 4900 Clinton Parkway.Jay already is serving a six-year prison sentence for setting 13 fires in Johnson County around the same time as the Lawrence fires. One of those fires destroyed a $7 million senior center under construction in Olathe and injured a firefighter.After Jay’s arrest, he was diagnosed with Asperger syndrome – essentially high-functioning autism – attention-deficit disorder, mild cognitive delay and a form of psychosis. He told police he set fires using starter logs and just wanted to see a fire – the more spectacular, the better.-contributed by Eric Weslander.