Overview
- The attack occurred on July 30, 2025, when Shotsie Buck-Hayes walked into councilman Lee Vogler’s Danville office, doused him with gasoline and set him on fire.
- Buck-Hayes pleaded guilty in April to one count each of attempted first-degree murder and aggravated malicious wounding after a breaking-and-entering charge was dropped under a plea deal.
- At sentencing the judge imposed 10 years on the attempted-murder count with five years suspended and a life term on the wounding count with all but 35 years suspended, producing an effective 40-year term.
- Blair Vogler told the court that Lee Vogler’s burns cover roughly 60% of his body and the councilman described severe, long-term changes to his life during the hearing.
- The commonwealth’s attorney said the judge’s wounding sentence was roughly triple what citizen guidelines recommend and the ruling could influence how courts weigh departures from those guidelines in aggravated violence cases.