Arson carries a steep mandatory sentence, at the federal and state level.
I am not exactly sure why that is

I had friend growing up similar situation got 6 years for arson.
I never forget it, when he got the sentence we were all in shock..

Meanwhile if he would have just baseball batted all the windows, head lights, tail lights, along with slashing all the tries, he would have gotten a B.S. charge, while sending a similar message.