A New London judge sentenced Nicholas Euell, 20, to four years and two months in prison and five years probation today for torching the former town hall on School Street in Jewett City and burglarizing a flea market in the borough on Jan. 3, 2006, and for stealing and crashing a car in a previous incident.

   "I just wanted to say I'm sorry to everybody," Euell said before he was sentenced, mentioning, specifically, a firefighter who was injured while fighting the Town Hall blaze.

   State's attorney Michael L. Regan had recommended a six-year sentence after Euell pleaded guilty to second-degree arson, third-degree larceny, third-degree burglary. The plea agreement gave attorney Peter E. Scillieri the right to argue for less time, and Scilleri, at the sentencing, asked the judge to consider deferring the sentence and allowing Euell to enter into a rehabilitiative program. Euell was thought to have a lesser role in the arson and burglary than his codefendant Curt Rivard Jr., who is serving a six-year sentence.

   Judge Susan B. Handy said she could not defer the sentence because of the seriousness of the case. She ordered Euell to repay the town $500 a year while on probation. She also ordered him to make $300 in restitution to the flea market for a broken window and some unrecovered items and to repay the car owner $4,500 if his loss was not covered by insurance.

   "This is a very, very serious case," she said, adding that it is fortunate the firefighter was not killed. The volunteer firefighter had fallen off a ladder and suffered fractured vertebrae and ribs.

    The sentencing in New London Superior Court came as a civil case involving Griswold employees and the failure of the town to renew the insurance policy on the former Town Hall continued in another courtroom.

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