Decade-long feud ends in prison sentence

COEUR d’ALENE — A 73-year-old man will spend at least three years in prison after he pleaded guilty to attempting to set fire to a car by putting a fuse into the gas tank and lighting it.

Coeur d’Alene resident Terry L. Gilbreth pleaded guilty to arson in the third degree, a felony.

Judge Scott Wayman sentenced Gilbreth on Tuesday to three years fixed and seven years indeterminate.

The charge stems from September 2020, when police responded to a disturbance at Coeur d’Alene home in the early hours of the morning.

A resident told police he woke around 3:40 a.m. to a loud bang.

Security footage showed a passenger vehicle park in front of the residence and flash its lights several times around 3:30 a.m.

Additional footage showed sparks and a plume of smoke emitting from another car parked in the driveway several minutes later.

Police said physical evidence, including a cannon fuse found near the car, indicated arson.

The family who lived at the residence indicated that they had been involved in a decade-long dispute with Gilbreth that was sparked by a civil lawsuit in 2010.

Gilbreth and the family reportedly owned adjoining properties in Shoshone County. Court documents indicate that Gilbreth filed the lawsuit because of a right-of-way dispute.

He was reportedly awarded $8,000 out of the $40,000 he sought.

Since the judgement, the family told police, Gilbreth stalked and harassed them.

Gilbreth allegedly damaged their property and repeatedly sent sex workers to their home. He also reportedly violated a no contact order.

In 2017, Gilbreth was placed on unsupervised probation for stalking.

When the family’s lake house burned down in April 2020, just days after Gilbreth was released from probation, police investigated Gilbreth as a suspect, according to court documents.

The family said they suspected Gilbreth of shooting at their home several weeks before the alleged arson. A bullet had penetrated the exterior of the home and lodged in an interior wall.

Gilbreth owned a vehicle that matched the one seen in security footage, police said.

He had also come into possession of a cannon that used the same color fuse as the one found at the scene.

Police arrested Gilbreth in September 2020. He posted $250,000 bail.

Gilbreth pleaded guilty to third degree arson in December 2020.

Prosecutors said Gilbreth led a “relatively crime-free life” until the dispute that began 10 years ago.

“It is unfortunate that Mr. Gilbreth’s conduct leads to a conclusion that the only way to protect the victims is to incarcerate him for up to 10 years,” Kootenai County Prosecuting Attorney Barry McHugh said in a news release.

Judge Wayman issued a 10-year no contact order between Gilbreth and the victims.