Nightclub and video poker machine operator Darrin Webb was sentenced Monday afternoon to 46 months in federal prison by Judge Allan Edgar.
Prosecutor Gary Humble said Webb "likes to play the big shot. Everything he touches, he corrupts."
Webb was given 42 months on convictions for teaching others how to make an incendiary device and paying a court clerk to get a ticket fixed.
He was given an additional four months on a revocation of a previous federal sentence for insurance fraud.
Webb's attorney, Fielding Atchley, had argued that he should get less time than his sentencing guidelines of 27-33 months, while prosecutor Humble said he needed more time.
Attorney Atchley said Webb had been a civic contributor in Fort Oglethorpe and Rossville. Prosecutor Humble noted that Fort Oglethorpe Mayor Judd Burkhart wrote a letter for Webb, and the prosecutor said he was informed that Webb was the mayor's leading contributor to his campaign.
Prosecutor Humble played excerpts from an Enigma interview in which Webb said he had been involved in arsons and lawbreaking in the past.
Catoosa County Det. Alan Miles testified that Webb tried to get him to bribe him. He said authorities had confiscated a number of Webb's video poker machines and he was being required to in effect buy them back.
He said there were some machines that were not usable, and Webb told him they should sell the parts and split the money. He said it would have been $800 to $1,000 each. Det. Miles said he contacted the FBI about the offer.
Attorney Atchley maintained that Webb was actually talking about splitting the money with the county, not the detective.
The government called James Roddy Nixon, who said he has been involved in about 15 arsons, including several with Webb.
Nixon said one of the arsons with Webb was at the residence of Amos Trotter. He said there were some unusable video poker machines in the house that Webb wanted to collect insurance on.
He said another was at a trailer in Catoosa County. He said a man named Lawhorn that he often drove in Webb's limousine was having an affair with a woman in a nearby trailer. He said the woman who lived in the trailer that was burned had been calling Lawhorn's wife to tell her about the affair.
Nixon said another arson was at the Rossville Holiness Church at 5016 Rossville Blvd. He said the church was burned in 1995 because Webb wanted to put get a beer license and the church was too close. Nixon said he went behind the church, poured gasoline through a hole, and set it afire.
He said another arson in 1997 was at the Rabbit Sports Bar at 3715 Rossville Blvd. Nixon said he knocked out a glass at the front of the bar and threw a flammable concoction inside. He said it apparently landed in a trash can. Nixon said the fire was ruled accidental - that someone had dropped something in the trash can that started the fire.
Nixon said Webb later loaned money to the bar operator to build back, and he placed his video poker machines inside the bar.
Tim Chambers, probation officer for Nixon, said he "made it very clear he did not like Darrin Webb. It was obvious they had had a falling out. He was more than willing to get Webb revoked."
Asked if he trusted Nixon more than Webb, the probation officer said, "To be honest, I wouldn't trust either one of them."
Willie Wilson, a concrete finisher and volunteer fireman in Catoosa County, said Nixon "wanted to get back at Darrin Webb." He said Nixon was mad that Webb had fired him several times and that he would not give him his father's jewelry that Nixon had pawned and Webb had gotten out of pawn.
The witness said, "We probably wouldn't be here today if they were still friends."
He said Nixon discussed robbing Webb's mother. "He felt she had a lot of money."