A Middletown man who admitted to retaliating against a New York State trooper who gave him a traffic ticket by setting fire to the trooper’s family’s house will now serve 20 years in prison.

Orange County prosecutors said during the sentencing on Tuesday that Tyler Williams took “painstaking efforts” to find the address on the internet and thought he was burning down the trooper’s own house.

Instead, officials say the 26-year-old used accelerant the week of Christmas in 2023 to burn down the trooper’s childhood home in Warwick where the trooper’s father and two siblings lived.

“He went there and used an accelerant and set the house on fire, almost completely burning it down. All over a traffic ticket,” says Orange County Chief Trial Assistant District Attorney Richard Moran.

Williams apologized in court before the sentence was handed down by Judge Craig Stephen Brown. He was initially indicted for attempted murder and previously pleaded guilty to arson, admitting that his actions were in retaliation for the traffic ticket in Middletown the day before.

Prosecutors said the trooper’s father and two siblings were sleeping inside the home when it was set on fire. They were not hurt during the incident.

Williams’ defense attorney Mike Davis says the case is a tragedy for everyone involved.

“Tyler took away his own future. Clearly made one of the worst mistakes anyone can ever make,” says Davis.

During the sentencing, Brown called the conduct “callous and egregious.”

Williams will also serve five years of post-release supervision as part of his sentence. A hearing to discuss restitution to reimburse the trooper’s family for a $1,600 insurance deductible is scheduled for later this month.