Second Massachusetts Teen Pleads Guilty to Torching Mall

A Massachusetts teenager has been sentenced to two years in jail for setting a fire that destroyed a Northborough strip mall and for firebombing a teacher’s car.

Matthew Cramer was sentenced Wednesday in Worcester Superior Court after pleading guilty to maliciously causing an explosion, willfully placing explosives, burning a building, breaking and entering, larceny and maliciously damaging a motor vehicle.

Prosecutors say Cramer and Nicholas Couture, both 18, started a fire at the shopping center in March 2008 to cover up a burglary. The fire caused an estimated $3 million damage.

The teens were also charged with firebombing a teacher’s car that prosecutors say was in retaliation for poor grades given to Couture’s girlfriend.

Couture was convicted in January.