A Forks man was sentenced to more than a year in prison for critically damaging a bridge on the Olympic Peninsula by cutting cedar from it to sell, prosecutors said.
Troy Crandall, 63, was sentenced last week in Jefferson County Superior Court to more than 17 months in prison and restitution of over $20,000 to the state Department of Natural Resources, The Peninsula Daily News reported.
He was convicted in February on malicious mischief, theft and trafficking in stolen property charges. He and Jose Carmen Salinas were discovered on Oct. 22 with freshly cut chunks of cedar from the bridge, according to DNR officer Allen Nelson.
Salinas earlier pleaded guilty to trafficking in stolen property and malicious mischief, according to Jefferson County prosecutors. He was sentenced to jail time served and the same restitution.
The two were discovered on Oct. 22 with freshly cut chunks of cedar from the bridge in West Jefferson County, according to DNR officer Allen Nelson.
Nelson said Crandall told him the bridge was just rotting away while Salinas said the two “were hungry and needed cash.”
Nelson said the outside span on one side of the bridge had been cut and removed, cables holding the bridge together were hanging underneath and a bottom girder was sawed apart.
DNR had said officials believed the two were going to sell the cedar on the black market for shake and shingles.