A jury took about two hours to determine his guilt and then spent about 30 minutes deciding to sentence him to 20 years in prison.

The formal sentencing is scheduled for 2 p.m. June 21.

Winchester Commonwealth’s Attorney Alexander R. Iden called the crime “a burning desire for self.”

Iden told the jury that Rickman’s motive for the arson, which caused about $600,000 in damage to the building, was to destroy the records showing a positive drug test Rickman took on June 6.

When Rickman took the stand, he denied having set the fire the night of June 8, 2003, or ever leaving his parents’ Shawneeland home the night of the fire.

Defense attorney William Crane urged the jury to look for holes in the testimony they would hear from two co-conspirators involved in the case.

Rickman’s friend, Dwayne Franklin Funkhouser, pled guilty in March to conspiracy to commit arson and faces up to five years in prison.

In agreement to testify against Rickman, the charges of arson and possession of a fire bomb were dropped. His formal sentencing is in June.

When Iden called Funkhouser to the stand and asked what happened the night of June 8, Funkhouser said “We caught the probation office on fire.”

Why? Iden asked.

“He went for a drug screen and failed,” Funkhouser said.

Rickman, Funkhouser, and Rickman’s girlfriend, Natasha Renee Seville, who is scheduled for a June processing date during which a trial date could be set, were together the night of the fire bombing, Funkhouser said.

The trio, after stopping at the Food Lion in Sunnyside Plaza to buy gloves, ended up at a hotel near the probation office, Funkhouser said.

While in the hotel’s parking lot, the two men filled six to eight beer bottles with gasoline, he said.

Then the men walked to the nearby probation office where Funkhouser selected two windows on the north side of the building and smashed them with a crow bar. The men then tossed in the Molotov cocktails, Funkhouser said.

Rickman also set a curtain in the office on fire with a lighter, he said.

The trio then left the scene, Funkhouser said.

Defense witness Seville’s testimony was slightly different than the version Funkhouser told.

She said the trio went to a gas station in Hogue Creek to get gasoline to fill the beer bottles and then stopped along a small back road to fill the bottles.

Seville said she doesn’t remember stopping at the Food Lion to buy anything before reaching the probation office.

The trio then arrived at the hotel where Seville stayed with the vehicle while the men set off on foot. She said they returned within five minutes.

While both Seville and Funkhouser said the group started the evening at Rickman’s parents’ house, Pam and Rodney Rickman both testified that they didn’t remember Funkhouser being at their home that night.

But they both said they didn’t know if Rickman was still in the home after 10:30 p.m. that night.

Rickman’s parents’ testimony did not create a sound alibi, Iden said.

Crane argued that Rickman wouldn’t have set the fire because what good would it have done him, because the probation officer knew he had a positive drug test.

In addition, a drug test using a hair could have been performed which can determine if a person had used an illegal substance up to three months ago, Crane said.