Army medic pleads guilty to torching

ATLANTA (AP) An Army medic who worked as a security guard for an Atlanta strip club while stationed at Camp Frank D. Merrill in Dahlonega has pleaded guilty to torching a competing club for $5,000.

Sandeo Pablo Dyson, 44, pleaded guilty Thursday in Atlanta. A prosecutor in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia says Dyson will not be charged in a separate case involving four other Dahlonega soldiers accused of plotting to rob drug dealers at gunpoint.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert McBurney did not rule out the possibility of Dyson testifying against the soldiers. Three of them remain in federal custody on charges of conspiracy to possess more than 5 kilograms of cocaine.

Judge Julie Carnes did not immediately set a sentencing date for Dyson. He faces a mandatory minimum of five years in prison after pleading guilty to arson in the burning of Club Onyx in Atlanta in January 2007.

Dyson was transferred from Camp Merrill to Fort Carson, Colo., in December.

Thirty-year-old Carlos Lopez, 28-year-old David Ray White, 32-year-old Randy Spivy and 28-year-old Stefan Andre Champagne were charged in January on federal drug conspiracy charges. Spivy has since been freed on bond.