The Region - News from Sept. 3, 1986

A Long Beach costume designer, convicted of starting a $3-million fire that destroyed his shop along with six others, has been sentenced to three years in prison. Allen C. Mitchell, 43, was also ordered to pay restitution of $60,000 to owners of the other businesses destroyed in the Feb. 23 fire at a neighborhood shopping center in the 4100 block of Orange Avenue. Noting that Mitchell set the fire “strictly for economic reasons” to collect on fire insurance and cover up a $400,000 embezzlement from his grandfather’s trust, U.S. District Judge William Byrne stipulated that Mitchell will be required to serve the full prison sentence without possibility of early parole.