CROWN POINT |?Lake County Criminal Court Judge Salvador Vasquez rescheduled a sentencing hearing late last week for a Warsaw, Ind., man convicted of charges relating to a 2007 house fire.

Cary Patrick was scheduled to be sentenced Wednesday for felony attempted murder charges and a felony count of arson, court records show.

A Lake County jury found Patrick guilty in July of setting fire to a Stark Court home in St. John while seven people were inside.

During the trial, Lake County prosecutors contended Patrick targeted the home after he fixated on the owners' teenage relative in North Carolina.

A few months before the fire, Patrick spray-painted that 16-year-old relative's name and phone number on the St. John garage, owner Bob Badgley testified.

The family filed a protection order against Patrick in January 2007, court records show.

Defense attorney Marc Laterzo maintained that none of the witnesses who testified saw Patrick near the Badgleys' house.

But neighbors testified they saw a red car, later identified as Patrick's red Camaro, cruising the area the night of the fire. When Warsaw police arrived at Patrick's home, his Camaro smelled of gasoline, Deputy Prosecutor Mark Watson said.

A receipt from a Lake County area CVS was inside, police said.