A Sausalito man admitted Monday to burning down a Mare Island wine storage warehouse in 2005, causing hundreds of millions of dollars in losses to many of the 150 or so wineries and collectors with bottles in the building.

On the eve of his trial in federal court in Sacramento, Sausalito resident Gary Anderson pleaded guilty to arson and 18 other counts, including embezzlement and tax evasion. Anderson’s trial was set to start today.

Anderson, 61, was pushed into the courtroom Monday in a wheelchair, wearing an orange Sacramento County Jail uniform. He answered questions from U.S. District Court Judge Lawrence Karlton with “Yes, sir” or “No, sir” before pleading guilty.

In exchange for the plea, prosecutors are recommending he serve about 15 and a half years in prison. He also could be ordered to pay $200 million in restitution.

Karlton will decide Anderson’s sentence at a hearing scheduled for Jan. 26.

On Oct. 12, 2005, the fire destroyed 6 million bottles of wine from 95 Napa wineries and 43 to 60 collectors, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Steven Lapham. The loss is estimated at about $250 million to $400 million.

“Speaking as a wine collector myself, I think this was a devastating loss, not only to the wine collectors who were his clients, but to the industry as a whole,” he said.

Anderson’s Sacramento-based attorney, Mark Reichel, said the risk of going to trial was too great for his client, who. faced a maximum sentence of life without parole had he been convicted at trial.

By January, he will have already served three years behind bars. Assuming he earns the opportunity to be released early, Anderson will likely have to serve six or seven more years, Reichel said.

Anderson, who suffers from cellulitis in his heart and left leg as well as stomach and back problem, will still have the “sunset” of his life left before him after his release, Reichel said.

“He’s happy to at least put some closure on it today,” he said. “He was under a lot of stress.”

A smoky cover up

Anderson’s wine storage business, Sausalito Cellars, was a troubled tenant in Wine Central Warehouse at the time of the fire. Anderson had been evicted in June 2005 and was given 90 days to move out, Lapham said.

Yet by October, he was still in the warehouse and was incurring daily penalties.

He left the warehouse shortly before the fire was discovered on Oct. 12, Lapham said. Investigators found a gasoline-soaked rag and a propane torch at the point where the fire originated, which was in Anderson’s bay, he said.

Lapham believes Anderson did it out of revenge for being evicted and to cover up the embezzlement of wines from his clients.

Anderson was selling wine he stole to a business in Chicago and others in Northern California. He accepted payments under the names “Peter Martin” and “Joseph Throckmorten,” Lapham said.

The tax evasion charges came from Anderson’s failure to report the hundreds of thousands of dollars of income he received for the stolen wines.

Those in the wine industry who suffered losses from the fire were relieved to see the case conclude.

Julie Johnson, owner of Tres Sabores, lost 2,000 cases of wine, including wine from a special project she conducted. She had three different winemakers make zinfandel from the same vineyard from 1999 to 2002.

Johnson also lost her first two vintages of cabernet sauvignon.

“It’s been a struggle to rebuild,” she said. “I think for everybody who had to take a pause in their whole presence in the market, it was difficult.”

Johnson was glad to see Anderson accept a plea deal.

“I’m glad he’s not wasting more public resources in going for a trial,” she said. “He’s already brought enough damage and chaos upon people, so enough already.”

Johnson hopes to be among the victims to speak at Anderson’s sentencing so she can convey to him how he affected her, she said.

The fire destroyed a half million dollars worth of wine from Coho Wines, which had been in business for only a couple years before the fire, said Gary Lipp, who partners in the winery with Brooks Painter and both of their wives.

The fire temporarily derailed the budding business.

“I was very angry at this person for a year,” he said. “He hurt us emotionally, as well as put us out of business for a year, but nobody was killed and nobody was seriously injured.”

The sentence ensures Anderson will pay a high price for his crime, Lipp said.

David Graves, cofounder of Saintsbury, considers justice served if Anderson serves the majority of the sentence.

“I think the notion that he’s pleading guilty to everything he’s been charged with is a reflection that he had been caught dead to rights, as we say,” he said. “No place to go; no place to hide.”

The fire and the events that followed have been shocking for Saintsbury, from the time it happened to learning about the man who started it, he said. Saintsbury lost 3,000 cases of wine that comprised its entire library from the previous 20 years, he said. Though Graves said the winery received a fair insurance settlement, the wines are irreplaceable.

“He certainly deserves a very serious sentencing,” Graves said. “The problem, of course, with all of these things is it doesn’t bring back the wines.”

Note: An earlier version of this article published Monday afternoon