Man Sentenced to 40 Years for Setting Danville Councilman on Fire

Lee Vogler sat in a Danville, Virginia courtroom on June 25, 2026 and watched the man who chased him down the street and lit him on fire find out he would spend the next 40 years locked up. Shotsie Michael Buck-Hayes, 30, had already pleaded guilty to attempted first-degree murder and aggravated malicious wounding. The only question left was how long he would serve. Judge James Reynolds answered it by handing down a life sentence on the wounding count and 10 years on the attempted murder count, then suspending most of it. The math comes out to 40 years behind bars. When a reporter asked Vogler for his reaction, he gave a one-word answer: "Relief."

The attack happened in broad daylight at his office

This was not a fight that broke out in a parking lot. On July 30, 2025, Buck-Hayes walked into Showcase Magazine in Danville, where Vogler works as a sales and marketing director. He was carrying a blue Lowe's bucket. Inside it was about $3 worth of gasoline. Witnesses said he doused Vogler, chased him through the building, and then set him on fire out on the street. Police later found Buck-Hayes sitting in his vehicle just a few blocks away, near the corner of Jefferson Avenue and Wilson Street. What makes the case stand out is the planning. Buck-Hayes told investigators he melted Styrofoam into the gasoline because he believed it would make the fire burn longer. That mixture is essentially homemade napalm. He did not just grab a lighter in a moment of rage. He built something designed to stick to skin and keep burning.

The motive was an affair

Buck-Hayes never hid why he did it. He told police that Vogler had been having an affair with his wife. The two men had actually been friends before all of this. Buck-Hayes and his wife separated in 2024 but, by his own account, kept seeing each other while he tried to save the marriage. He found out about the affair and, on the morning of the attack, had a phone call with his ex that he said made him feel "rejected." That's when he says he started "freaking out" and drove to buy gas. His ex-wife later confirmed the affair to investigators, according to court documents. Even in court, Buck-Hayes told his attorney that he handled the whole thing wrong, saying blocking his wife's number "would have been a much better way of going about things." That is one way to put it.

Vogler was burned over 60% of his body

The injuries are hard to even read about. Vogler suffered second- and third-degree burns across 60% of his body. He was airlifted to the burn unit at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he spent nearly a month in a coma. To treat the burns, doctors had to remove an additional 35% of his skin. For a stretch of time, his wife Blair testified, Vogler was 95% open. He spent about three months in the hospital recovering. He still deals with constant pain, nerve damage, and the psychological weight of what happened. And here's the part that says everything about the guy: the same day he was discharged from the hospital, October 21, 2025, he walked into a city council meeting and got back to work. He was first elected to the council in 2012, when he was just 24 years old.

The judge went above the guidelines

Here's where things got interesting in the courtroom. Buck-Hayes pleaded guilty in April with no deal in place. That means there was no agreement with prosecutors capping his sentence. He left his fate entirely up to Judge Reynolds. The state sentencing guidelines called for somewhere between 5 and 12 years. The judge looked at that range and decided it wasn't close to enough. He called the facts of the case "a pinnacle of human cruelty" and blew right past the recommended numbers. Commonwealth's Attorney Michael Newman, who pushed for a heavy sentence, said afterward that he was glad the court "agreed that it's an aggravating case and went above the guidelines." The defense had argued for something within the guidelines, saying Buck-Hayes accepted responsibility and could be rehabilitated. The judge clearly did not buy it.

He apologized, then repeated his reason

Buck-Hayes spoke in court. He told Vogler, "You didn't deserve what has happened to you, and I couldn't be more sorry." But Newman noted that in the same breath, Buck-Hayes kept circling back to the affair as his reason for the attack. The prosecutor called it "what he claimed to be an apology." The Vogler family was not having it. Vogler told the court, "I was ambushed and violently attacked at my place of employment, with no warning," and called his attacker "an evil, violent individual." His relative Jack Vogler looked directly at Buck-Hayes and said in a loud voice, "You are a coward." Vogler's mother, Rhonda, said Buck-Hayes showed no remorse at the earlier plea hearing as video of her son running across the street on fire played in the room. She said the July 2025 page is still hanging on her calendar at home, frozen on the day everything changed.

His own lawyer was caught off guard

The length of the sentence surprised the people sitting at the defense table. Buck-Hayes' attorney, Edward Lavado, said the decision came out of nowhere for them. "It was a shock to Shotsie, his family, everyone involved," he said. The judge also acknowledged Buck-Hayes' documented mental health history before ruling. His mother, Naomi Buck, traveled from England for the sentencing and told the court her son struggled with mental issues and had been prescribed medication back in high school. None of it moved the needle on the final number. The defense has said Buck-Hayes plans to appeal the sentence. As part of the ruling, he is also barred from ever having any contact with the Vogler family again.

What happens after the 40 years

There's a detail in this case that a lot of people missed. Buck-Hayes is not a U.S. citizen. He no longer has a valid green card. Once he finishes his prison term, he will likely be sent back to the United Kingdom. So the 40 years is not just a prison sentence. It's also, in effect, the clock running out on his time in this country. An earlier charge of breaking and entering while armed with a deadly weapon was dropped after his guilty plea, which is why the final tally landed where it did between the two remaining counts. On the attempted murder charge, he got 10 years with 5 suspended. On the malicious wounding count, he got life with all but 35 years suspended. Add it up and you get the 40-year figure that made headlines.

Vogler says he's moving forward

For someone who came as close to dying as a person can get, Vogler's statement after sentencing was striking for what it didn't include. No bitterness, no talk of revenge. "The justice system worked like it's supposed to," he said. "My family and I are grateful for all of the prayers and well wishes we've received. Now we are ready to move forward with our lives." Then he added something that stuck with a lot of people who followed the case: "I feel like God spared me for a reason. So I intend to wake up every day trying to be the best husband I can be. The best father I can be. The best City Councilman I can be." The married father of two said he feels a renewed sense to do good and help others. He survived something almost nobody walks away from, went right back to serving his city, and seems determined to keep doing it. The man who tried to take all of that from him will be in his 70s before he sees freedom again, if he ever sets foot in America after that at all.