Son gets 20 years in pet-killing fire in Virginia Beach

VIRGINIA BEACH

A Circuit Court judge on Wednesday sentenced a man to serve 20 years in prison for setting a February fire in which two dogs were killed, the commonwealth's attorney's office said.

Calvin Robert Baker, 31, pleaded guilty in June to the arson of the Beechwalk Drive home he shared with his mother, according to a news release from the office.

Baker poured gasoline on some clothes on the floor of a bedroom closet, lit them and left the home, prosecutors said. Baker's mother was not there at the time.

Two dogs inside a pen inside the bedroom died as a result of the fire, the news release said.

Judge H. Thomas Padrick sentenced Baker to 40 years in prison with 20 years suspended, prosecutors said.