FREEPORT

A Cumberland County grand jury indicted a man suspected of setting fire to a Freeport business and burglarizing vehicles in the parking lot.

Christopher Veysey, 21, of the New Gloucester area, now faces three counts of Class A arson, six counts of Class C burglary to a motor vehicle, three counts of Class D burglary to a motor vehicle and one count of Class E theft, according to an indictment list the Cumberland County District Attorney’s Office released late Friday afternoon.

Freeport Police Detective Gino Bianchini said that the charges stem from a joint investigation by Freeport police and the State Fire Marshal’s Office into the Oct. 25 incident that destroyed the Bob Miles & Sons building at 1162 Route 1.

Sgt. Joel Davis of the State Fire Marshal’s Office told The Times Record in October that Veysey was attempting to board a bus in Portland, headed for South Carolina, at the time of his arrest.

At that time, Veysey was described as a transient from near Hartland. Davis said Veysey had no particular connection to the Freeport business.

“(Veysey) just happened to be in the area and it was likely a target of opportunity,” Davis told The Times Record on Oct. 25.

Investigators believe that Veysey broke into nine vehicles, Davis said, before lighting two or three vehicles on fire in what Davis described as an attempt to cover up the burglaries.

Freeport firefighter Steve Roy, who was among the first on the scene, told The Times Record at the time of the incident that he found three cars ablaze when he arrived, and that flames began to leap to the back wall of the building.

The maximum sentence for Class A arson, a felony, is 30 years in jail.