After deliberating several hours over two days, a jury on Friday convicted the man who set Augusta’s Twins Peaks restaurant on fire in the middle of lunchtime in 2017.
The Richmond County Superior Court jury found Roland Croyle, 37, guilty but mentally ill of all 24 counts of arson, aggravated assault and criminal damage to property. Judge J. Wade Padgett sentenced Croyle to 140 years in prison followed by 20 years on probation.
On June 26, 2017, as 21 people worked or dined at the restaurant on Robert C. Daniel Jr. Parkway, Croyle crashed his vehicle into the building. As people fled, he threw buckets of gasoline and diesel fluid, propane tanks and fuel-soaked blankets into the restaurant and torched it. He had worked at the restaurant before being fired for drinking on the job.