{"id":101376,"date":"2024-04-29T07:51:13","date_gmt":"2024-04-29T11:51:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.owegopennysaver.com\/PS\/?p=101376"},"modified":"2024-04-29T07:51:13","modified_gmt":"2024-04-29T11:51:13","slug":"they-werent-supposed-to-be-murdered-tioga-downs-arsonist-rendered-maximum-sentence-last-friday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.owegopennysaver.com\/PS\/2024\/04\/29\/they-werent-supposed-to-be-murdered-tioga-downs-arsonist-rendered-maximum-sentence-last-friday\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018They weren\u2019t supposed to be murdered\u2019; Tioga Downs Arsonist rendered maximum sentence last Friday"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Wendy Post —<\/p>\n

It has been just a little over five months since a fire set to the barns at Tioga Downs Racetrack in Nichols, N.Y. sent emotional shockwaves throughout the community, and especially the equine community. But on April 19, 2024 the arsonist, Boyd Fenton, appeared at the Tioga County Courthouse in Owego, N.Y. to face his sentence for the crimes committed.<\/p>\n

Arriving for sentencing for Arson in the 3rd degree and Assault in the 2nd degree, both felonies, along with 30 counts of animal cruelty, Tioga County Judge Adam Schumacher rendered the maximum sentence for each.<\/p>\n

For the Arson charge, Fenton will serve five-15 years; he will serve seven years for the Assault charge along with three years post-release supervision.<\/p>\n

For the Animal Cruelty charges, all in violation of New York\u2019s Ag and Market Law and considered felonies, Fenton received one and a third to four years for each count. The sentence for each charge will run concurrently, as New York State requires that crimes resulting from another act, in this case setting a fire, be served as such.<\/span><\/p>\n

Following the charges Fenton waived his right to a restitution hearing, with the court adjourning soon after.<\/p>\n

\"\u2018They<\/a>

Pictured, Mindy Findling Repko and Jan Repko, originally from Sullivan County, Pa. and now living in Indiana and Florida, arrived for the sentencing of Boyd Fenton last Friday. The couple lost five horses in the Nov. 9, 2023 fire at Tioga Downs Racetrack. (Photo by Wendy Post)<\/p><\/div>\n

Rewind to 12:30 p.m. last Friday, and prior to the sentencing, where media gathered outside of the courthouse hoping to capture a photo of the handcuffed Fenton being led into court in shackles. Instead, Fenton was taken in on the other side of the courthouse, avoiding the cameras entirely.<\/p>\n

Also outside the courthouse were several owners of horses that perished in the November 2023 fire. Among those waiting were Mindy Findling Repko and Jan Repko, originally from Sullivan County, Pa. and now living in Indiana and Florida. The couple lost five horses in the Nov. 9, 2023 fire.<\/p>\n

Market Mayhem, Mc Mach, Violence, Ruff Montana Lane, and Hunts Point all lost their lives that morning when the fire was set at the barn, located along the backside of the track at Tioga Downs.<\/p>\n

Mindy said she was in Indiana when she heard the news about the fire and the horses, a phone call that haunts her to this day.<\/p>\n

\u201cI screamed, and then I fell to the floor,\u201d said Mindy, \u201cI couldn\u2019t function.\u201d<\/p>\n

And in her victim impact statement, offered to the court during the sentencing, she repeated that her horses were her children.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou murdered our kids,\u201d said Mindy, and as she looked directly at Fenton, who was sitting at a table near his attorney.<\/p>\n

From observation, however, and through most of the sentencing, Fenton displayed little remorse, only bowing his head down on occasion and glancing now and then at Mindy as she delivered her victim impact statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey weren\u2019t supposed to be murdered,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

Mindy did share, however, that in a twist of fate one of her horses was spared, Feelin\u2019 American. According to Mindy, that horse was on vacation. She shared, during the victim impact statement, that Feelin\u2019 American, as well as several other horses, were also grieving at the loss of their siblings.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had no way to explain why [the horses] were gone,\u201d said Mindy.<\/p>\n

For her, the days have been long and the nights hard.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery day, every night, every moment, all I hear is that the barn is on fire,\u201d she explained, adding that she is in therapy for PTSD, depression, and can\u2019t understand why, a sentiment shared by many on various social media platforms throughout the ordeal.<\/p>\n

\"\u2018They<\/a>

Sheriff activity was seen just prior to and after Boyd Fenton\u2019s arrival at the courthouse for sentencing, but Fenton was ultimately taken in through another door, avoiding the media and horse owners that were waiting outside of the Tioga County Courthouse in Owego, N.Y. (Photo by Wendy Post)<\/p><\/div>\n

But her conviction was strong in court as she repeated, \u201cI don\u2019t know if I will ever understand what you did, to kill 30 horses and two cats.\u201d<\/p>\n

Again, Boyd Fenton sat emotionless and lacking remorse, possibly due to an acceptance of his fate as the sentence was already on the table as part of the plea deal.<\/p>\n

While in town from Indiana for the sentencing of Fenton, Mindy and Jan visited the memorial where their \u201cchildren\u201d are buried behind the track at Tioga Downs Racetrack in Nichols, N.Y. Never having children, the horses filled that spot in their life.<\/p>\n

They explained that not only did they lose their best friends, but they lost over $100,000 in equipment as well. They thanked the community, whom they said has been more than generous.<\/p>\n

Another woman attending the sentencing, who chose to remain anonymous, was at the barns on the morning of the fire and described things, stating that there was nothing but black smoke and that there was no way to even get to the horses, that you could barely see the barn. This sight etched, as well, in her memory.<\/p>\n

The equine and horse racing community rallied to support each other following the November fire, raising hundreds of thousands of dollars and holding an emotion provoking \u201cMemorial Walk\u201d with their horses. Word of the tragedy spread like wildfire, and donations poured in to help relieve some of the unimaginable loss suffered.<\/p>\n

In a conversation with the CEO of American Racing and Entertainment earlier this month, Jeff Gural, he spoke of the memorial site, and mentioned plans in the works to transform it into a place of remembrance. Stay tuned for the details.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Wendy Post — It has been just a little over five months since a fire set to the barns at Tioga Downs Racetrack in…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":101378,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-101376","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n\u2018They weren\u2019t supposed to be murdered\u2019; Tioga Downs Arsonist rendered maximum sentence last Friday - Owego Pennysaver Press<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/www.owegopennysaver.com\/PS\/2024\/04\/29\/they-werent-supposed-to-be-murdered-tioga-downs-arsonist-rendered-maximum-sentence-last-friday\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"\u2018They weren\u2019t supposed to be murdered\u2019; Tioga Downs Arsonist rendered maximum sentence last Friday - Owego Pennysaver Press\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Wendy Post — It has been just a little over five months since a fire set to the barns at Tioga Downs Racetrack in...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"http:\/\/www.owegopennysaver.com\/PS\/2024\/04\/29\/they-werent-supposed-to-be-murdered-tioga-downs-arsonist-rendered-maximum-sentence-last-friday\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Owego Pennysaver Press\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/The-Owego-Pennysaver-49179420591\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-04-29T11:51:13+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.greenstreetdata.com\/PS\/owego\/files\/2024\/04\/Fenton2.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"800\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"psadvert\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"psadvert\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.owegopennysaver.com\/PS\/2024\/04\/29\/they-werent-supposed-to-be-murdered-tioga-downs-arsonist-rendered-maximum-sentence-last-friday\/\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/www.owegopennysaver.com\/PS\/2024\/04\/29\/they-werent-supposed-to-be-murdered-tioga-downs-arsonist-rendered-maximum-sentence-last-friday\/\",\"name\":\"\u2018They weren\u2019t supposed to be murdered\u2019; Tioga Downs Arsonist rendered maximum sentence last Friday - Owego Pennysaver Press\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.owegopennysaver.com\/PS\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.owegopennysaver.com\/PS\/2024\/04\/29\/they-werent-supposed-to-be-murdered-tioga-downs-arsonist-rendered-maximum-sentence-last-friday\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.owegopennysaver.com\/PS\/2024\/04\/29\/they-werent-supposed-to-be-murdered-tioga-downs-arsonist-rendered-maximum-sentence-last-friday\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\/\/www.greenstreetdata.com\/PS\/owego\/files\/2024\/04\/Fenton2.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2024-04-29T11:51:13+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.owegopennysaver.com\/PS\/#\/schema\/person\/e03684194434956dfb61f5ffcbc19492\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.owegopennysaver.com\/PS\/2024\/04\/29\/they-werent-supposed-to-be-murdered-tioga-downs-arsonist-rendered-maximum-sentence-last-friday\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"http:\/\/www.owegopennysaver.com\/PS\/2024\/04\/29\/they-werent-supposed-to-be-murdered-tioga-downs-arsonist-rendered-maximum-sentence-last-friday\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.owegopennysaver.com\/PS\/2024\/04\/29\/they-werent-supposed-to-be-murdered-tioga-downs-arsonist-rendered-maximum-sentence-last-friday\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/www.greenstreetdata.com\/PS\/owego\/files\/2024\/04\/Fenton2.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"http:\/\/www.greenstreetdata.com\/PS\/owego\/files\/2024\/04\/Fenton2.jpg\",\"width\":600,\"height\":800,\"caption\":\"The Tioga County Courthouse in Owego, N.Y. was the location for the sentencing of Boyd Fenton last Friday. (Photo by Wendy Post)\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.owegopennysaver.com\/PS\/2024\/04\/29\/they-werent-supposed-to-be-murdered-tioga-downs-arsonist-rendered-maximum-sentence-last-friday\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"http:\/\/www.owegopennysaver.com\/PS\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"\u2018They weren\u2019t supposed to be murdered\u2019; Tioga Downs Arsonist rendered maximum sentence last Friday\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.owegopennysaver.com\/PS\/#website\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/www.owegopennysaver.com\/PS\/\",\"name\":\"Owego Pennysaver Press\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"http:\/\/www.owegopennysaver.com\/PS\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.owegopennysaver.com\/PS\/#\/schema\/person\/e03684194434956dfb61f5ffcbc19492\",\"name\":\"psadvert\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.owegopennysaver.com\/PS\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0f42612cb07a4c4b7f1eb18ddb88bac4f8054cf2755aff2b1ac4f82d9e9ffd01?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0f42612cb07a4c4b7f1eb18ddb88bac4f8054cf2755aff2b1ac4f82d9e9ffd01?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"psadvert\"},\"url\":\"http:\/\/www.owegopennysaver.com\/PS\/author\/psadvert\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"\u2018They weren\u2019t supposed to be murdered\u2019; Tioga Downs Arsonist rendered maximum sentence last Friday - Owego Pennysaver Press","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"http:\/\/www.owegopennysaver.com\/PS\/2024\/04\/29\/they-werent-supposed-to-be-murdered-tioga-downs-arsonist-rendered-maximum-sentence-last-friday\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"\u2018They weren\u2019t supposed to be murdered\u2019; Tioga Downs Arsonist rendered maximum sentence last Friday - Owego Pennysaver Press","og_description":"By Wendy Post — It has been just a little over five months since a fire set to the barns at Tioga Downs Racetrack in...","og_url":"http:\/\/www.owegopennysaver.com\/PS\/2024\/04\/29\/they-werent-supposed-to-be-murdered-tioga-downs-arsonist-rendered-maximum-sentence-last-friday\/","og_site_name":"Owego Pennysaver Press","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/The-Owego-Pennysaver-49179420591\/","article_published_time":"2024-04-29T11:51:13+00:00","og_image":[{"width":600,"height":800,"url":"http:\/\/www.greenstreetdata.com\/PS\/owego\/files\/2024\/04\/Fenton2.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"psadvert","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"psadvert","Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"http:\/\/www.owegopennysaver.com\/PS\/2024\/04\/29\/they-werent-supposed-to-be-murdered-tioga-downs-arsonist-rendered-maximum-sentence-last-friday\/","url":"http:\/\/www.owegopennysaver.com\/PS\/2024\/04\/29\/they-werent-supposed-to-be-murdered-tioga-downs-arsonist-rendered-maximum-sentence-last-friday\/","name":"\u2018They weren\u2019t supposed to be murdered\u2019; Tioga Downs Arsonist rendered maximum sentence last Friday - Owego Pennysaver Press","isPartOf":{"@id":"http:\/\/www.owegopennysaver.com\/PS\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"http:\/\/www.owegopennysaver.com\/PS\/2024\/04\/29\/they-werent-supposed-to-be-murdered-tioga-downs-arsonist-rendered-maximum-sentence-last-friday\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"http:\/\/www.owegopennysaver.com\/PS\/2024\/04\/29\/they-werent-supposed-to-be-murdered-tioga-downs-arsonist-rendered-maximum-sentence-last-friday\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/www.greenstreetdata.com\/PS\/owego\/files\/2024\/04\/Fenton2.jpg","datePublished":"2024-04-29T11:51:13+00:00","author":{"@id":"http:\/\/www.owegopennysaver.com\/PS\/#\/schema\/person\/e03684194434956dfb61f5ffcbc19492"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"http:\/\/www.owegopennysaver.com\/PS\/2024\/04\/29\/they-werent-supposed-to-be-murdered-tioga-downs-arsonist-rendered-maximum-sentence-last-friday\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["http:\/\/www.owegopennysaver.com\/PS\/2024\/04\/29\/they-werent-supposed-to-be-murdered-tioga-downs-arsonist-rendered-maximum-sentence-last-friday\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"http:\/\/www.owegopennysaver.com\/PS\/2024\/04\/29\/they-werent-supposed-to-be-murdered-tioga-downs-arsonist-rendered-maximum-sentence-last-friday\/#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/www.greenstreetdata.com\/PS\/owego\/files\/2024\/04\/Fenton2.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/www.greenstreetdata.com\/PS\/owego\/files\/2024\/04\/Fenton2.jpg","width":600,"height":800,"caption":"The Tioga County Courthouse in Owego, N.Y. was the location for the sentencing of Boyd Fenton last Friday. (Photo by Wendy Post)"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"http:\/\/www.owegopennysaver.com\/PS\/2024\/04\/29\/they-werent-supposed-to-be-murdered-tioga-downs-arsonist-rendered-maximum-sentence-last-friday\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"http:\/\/www.owegopennysaver.com\/PS\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"\u2018They weren\u2019t supposed to be murdered\u2019; Tioga Downs Arsonist rendered maximum sentence last Friday"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"http:\/\/www.owegopennysaver.com\/PS\/#website","url":"http:\/\/www.owegopennysaver.com\/PS\/","name":"Owego Pennysaver Press","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"http:\/\/www.owegopennysaver.com\/PS\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"http:\/\/www.owegopennysaver.com\/PS\/#\/schema\/person\/e03684194434956dfb61f5ffcbc19492","name":"psadvert","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"http:\/\/www.owegopennysaver.com\/PS\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0f42612cb07a4c4b7f1eb18ddb88bac4f8054cf2755aff2b1ac4f82d9e9ffd01?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0f42612cb07a4c4b7f1eb18ddb88bac4f8054cf2755aff2b1ac4f82d9e9ffd01?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"psadvert"},"url":"http:\/\/www.owegopennysaver.com\/PS\/author\/psadvert\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.owegopennysaver.com\/PS\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101376","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.owegopennysaver.com\/PS\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.owegopennysaver.com\/PS\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.owegopennysaver.com\/PS\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.owegopennysaver.com\/PS\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=101376"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.owegopennysaver.com\/PS\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101376\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":101380,"href":"http:\/\/www.owegopennysaver.com\/PS\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101376\/revisions\/101380"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.owegopennysaver.com\/PS\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/101378"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.owegopennysaver.com\/PS\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=101376"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.owegopennysaver.com\/PS\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=101376"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.owegopennysaver.com\/PS\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=101376"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}