LOS ANGELES, CA — A German national who set dozens of fires in Hollywood, West Hollywood and the San Fernando Valley more than six years ago was sentenced Friday to 33 years and 4 months in prison.

Judge George G. Lomeli handed down the sentence to Harry Burkhart, a couple weeks after a jury found that Burkhart was sane at the time of the crimes. The sanity finding meant that he could have faced nearly 89 years in prison. The downtown Los Angeles jury was the second to be asked to consider whether Burkhart, now 30, was sane or insane when he set the series of blazes beneath parked vehicles between Dec. 30, 2011, and Jan. 2, 2012.

The first jury to hear the case convicted Burkhart in September 2016 of 49 felony counts, but deadlocked on the sanity issue -- with eight of those jurors finding that they believed he was insane and four others voting in favor of finding him sane. Burkhart's attorney, Steve Schoenfield, acknowledged during his opening statement that the fires resulted in an incredible amount of property destruction and traumatized a lot of people, but he said a forensic psychologist hired on behalf of the defense concluded that Burkhart was "legally insane when he committed these arsons."

The defense lawyer told jurors Burkhart is mentally ill and developmentally disabled and has been hospitalized on numerous occasions for psychiatric illnesses, including once just four months before the arsons began, despite the defendant's own protestations to authorities that he is not mentally ill. Being separated from his mother, Dorothee, after her arrest in the United States in connection with a fraud case against her in Germany "meant the whole world was going to come to an end" and resulted in a "perfect storm," Schoenfield said, telling the panel that the evidence would show that setting the fires were "how he acted out."

"It's clear that what he did was irrational, lashing out at people that were not involved" in the criminal case involving his mother, the defense attorney said.

Deputy District Attorney Joy Roberts countered that Burkhart knew the difference between right and wrong when he set more than 40 fires in less than a week in Hollywood, West Hollywood and the San Fernando Valley.

The prosecutor said Burkhart's "arson rampage" was spurred by a desire for revenge for his mother's arrest, calling the attacks "methodical," "premeditated" and "done under the cover of night" in areas where he could quickly set fires and then escape without being detected. "The evidence will show he hated America," the prosecutor said. "He told his mother he wanted to roast America ... Roasting America is exactly what he did."