A Manning man arrested for burning nearly two dozen hay bales in rural southwest Carroll County last fall was sentenced this week. According to Carroll County District Court records, 34-year-old Jacob Harry Jacobsen pled guilty to second-degree arson, a class C felony. A 10-year prison sentence was suspended as part of a plea agreement with prosecutors, and Jacobsen was instead placed on probation for two years to the Department of Correctional Services. A secondary charge of third-degree arson, an aggravated misdemeanor, was dismissed following Jacobsen’s sentencing. The charges stem from a Carroll County Sheriff’s Office investigation launched last fall after the Manning and Templeton Fire Departments were dispatched to an early morning fire north of Manning on Nov. 29, 2022. Authorities connected the arson to Jacobsen using tracking data through his employer’s vehicle, which he was using at the time the fires started.
