A Connecticut man has pleaded guilty to setting fire to a renown Shakespearean theater and several other structures in four towns. Christopher Sakowicz, 20, of Stratford, faces 10 years in prison after pleading guilty to arson charges Friday in Bridgeport Superior Court, the Connecticut Post reported. Sentencing was set for Sept. 10.
Sakowicz admitted taking part in setting the blaze on Jan. 13, 2019, that destroyed the American Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford, whose stage was graced by the likes of Katharine Hepburn, Christopher Plummer and James Earl Jones. He was a teenager at the time. The theater, built in 1955, was modeled after London’s Globe Theatre, which famously burned in 1613.
Two other teens were charged in connection with the theater fire and other blazes.
Sakowicz also admitted to setting fires the same year at a vacant building at the Southbury Training School, the former Bilco Co. in West Haven, Good Earth Tree Care in Stratford — where a truck was destroyed — and construction trailers at Silver Sands State Park in Milford.
