PARIS – A Fryeburg man received a one-year suspended sentence and a year’s probation for causing a fire that destroyed his former wife’s mobile home in Stow.

Paul Eugene Snow, 38, pleaded guilty Monday in Oxford County Superior Court to one count of aggravated criminal mischief in connection with the Aug. 7, 2003, fire. In return for his guilty plea, the state dismissed a charge of arson against Snow.

Under terms of his probation, Snow must abstain from the use of alcohol or drugs, submit to random search and testing, be evaluated for substance abuse and have no contact with his former wife.

Court records in the case show that Snow denied deliberately setting the fire at the home on Union Hill Road.

Snow told investigator Joel Davis of the State Fire Marshal’s Office that he had moved out of the home a week earlier, and returned to retrieve some belongings after receiving a protection order in the mail. He entered through the back of the trailer and searched for the guest book from their wedding and the title to a van.

No one was at home when Snow entered the trailer, according to a deposition taken by Davis and investigator Timothy York.

Snow said he had been drinking heavily that day, and may have dropped a cigarette while looking through the trailer, or burned a letter he found.

The fire marshal’s investigation, however, determined that the fire had been deliberately set.

Snow said he was in the trailer for about 10 minutes, and after he left he said he bought more beer and went home and went to sleep. Investigators came to his house about 9 p.m. and woke him up.

In order for his case to be heard, Snow was extradited to Maine earlier this year from the South Dakota State Penitentiary in Sioux Falls, where he was serving a 180-day sentence for felony grand theft.