POCATELLO –Trevor James Hurley, 20, of Blackfoot, Idaho, pleaded guilty yesterday in United States District Court in Pocatello to arson, U.S. Attorney Wendy J. Olson announced.

According to the plea agreement, in the early morning hours of August 6, 2012, Hurley set fire to a manufactured home or trailer located on the Fort Hall Shoshone Bannock Indian Reservation. Witnesses observed Hurley earlier in the night purchasing cotton balls and lighter fluid at a convenience store. Hurley later returned to the convenience store, bragging about how he had set someone's trailer on fire. In an interview with law enforcement on September 11, 2012, Hurley explained how he poured lighter fluid on the cotton balls, lit them on fire, and pushed them through a hole in the screen to the trailer's master bedroom window. He said that the trailer ignited fast, flames shot up, and then he ran back to his friends in a nearby vehicle. Although the trailer was a total loss, and another person was sleeping in a camp trailer located approximately ten feet away, no one was injured in the fire.

The charge is punishable by up to 25 years in prison, a maximum fine of $250,000, and up to five years of supervised release.

Sentencing is set for April 30, 2013, before Chief U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill at the federal courthouse in Pocatello.

The case was investigated by the Fort Hall Police Department, Idaho State Fire Marshal, and the Bingham County Sheriff's Office.