CAPE GIRARDEAU – A man from Poplar Bluff, Missouri on Tuesday admitted setting fires that burned 220 acres of U.S. Forest Service and private land in 2022 and agreed to repay $66,000.
Adam D. Gambling, 44, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Cape Girardeau to one felony count of setting fires on public land. He admitted setting a series of fires on Nov. 8, 2022, near Beaver Lake in the Mark Twain National Forest in Butler County. Those fires burned a total of 220.68 acres, of which 95.3 acres were privately owned.
After an investigation, the U.S. Forest Service developed Gambling as a suspect. During a voluntary interview at his home, Gambling admitted that he had started the fires.
He is scheduled to be sentenced May 24. The charge carries a penalty of up to five years in prison, a $250,000 fine or both prison and a fine. Gambling also agreed to pay $66,094 in restitution to the U.S. Forest Service for the cost of fighting the fires.
The U.S. Forest Service investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Christopher Shelton is prosecuting the case.