KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — An Independence business owner who admitted he hired a man to burn down a rival business has been sentenced to more than six years in federal prison.
William "Bill" Joseph Reneau, 44, of Overland Park, was sentenced Tuesday to 78 months in federal prison and ordered to pay $167,085 in restitution to his victims, federal prosecutors said in a news release.
Reneau pleaded guilty in August to single counts of arson and being a felon in possession of a firearm and ammunition. Investigators said Reneau was the owner of Gold Rush Exchange in Independence when he hired Randall Eugene Yeager Jr. to destroy Bobby Jackson's Trading, a gold-buying business operated by a former employee of Reneau's. Prosecutors said Reneau was trying to settle a grievance with the former employee.
Investigators say Reneau hired Yeager on two separate occasions to target Bobby Jackson's Trading, paying Yeager a total of $1,600. Prosecutors say Yeager drove a stolen Jeep into the business in July 2017, causing $10,000 in damage, and set fire to the store a month later, causing about $5,000 in damage.
Yeager was sentenced last year to more than five years in federal prison for participating in an arson conspiracy.
