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Probation terminated for Lowell arsonist, judge orders prison in deadly horse barn fire

The sentence follows what the judge called a "valiant'' effort to find a secure treatment center that would serve as an alternative to prison.

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. – A man who admitted to setting a barn fire near Lowell that killed 13 therapy horses is heading to prison after efforts to put him in a long-term treatment center proved fruitless.

Payton Mellema was sentenced Monday to between three and 10 years behind bars. The sentence follows what the judge called a “valiant’’ effort to find a secure treatment center that would serve as an alternative to prison.

“There’s just no mental health care available,’’ defense attorney Jeffery Crampton said afterwards. “It disgusts me, the state of mental health care in this country.’’

A plea agreement hammered out last fall required Mellema to spend five years on probation with the first three years at a secured mental health treatment facility.

There was a caveat: If a suitable treatment facility could not be found after four months, Mellema would instead go to prison. The search period was even extended, but to no avail.

“It’s a shocking and disappointing anomaly between the mental health system and the criminal justice system,’’ Kent County Circuit Court Judge Donald A. Johnston said. “But ultimately, the court has to implement its own orders.’’

Crampton said he was hopeful a facility could be found. Some 300 facilities were consulted; more than two dozen warranted a closer look, he said. In the end, there was no place able to keep Mellema for the amount of time required.

“Every time there is one of these school shootings and then they say this person just needed more mental health, this is exactly the problem,’’ Crampton said. “There are no facilities to help them; we have looked at so many different places.’’

Mellema’s mother, who attended Monday’s hearing, broke into tears when the prison sentence was announced.

Mellema will be credited for more than a year he has already spent in the Kent County Jail, making him eligible for parole in about two years.

“We were all hoping there’d be a better outcome here,’’ Kent County Assistant Prosecutor Kellee Koncki said.

Mellema, 21, has a history of mental health issues and had been banned from setting foot on property housing The Barn for Equine Learning on Timpson Avenue north of 36th Street SE, where he once served as a volunteer. Mellema lived next door and had been accused of entering the barn without permission and cutting pasture fences.

At the time of the fire, Mellema was on probation for a 2016 home invasion conviction. He broke into a neighbor’s home and stole a .22 caliber firearm. Shortly after the fire, Mellema was outfitted with an electronic ankle tether as an amendment to his probation.

Mellema wore the tether for 18 days before cutting it off on April 30, 2017. He was locked up in the Kent County Jail the next day and has remained there ever since.

He pleaded guilty in September to third-degree arson, a 10-year felony, and killing/torturing animals, a four-year offense. Mellema's attorney said his client has been “very remorseful all along.’’

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