An Elizabethtown man charged with setting a mobile home on fire by spraying lighter fluid on a stove earlier this year accepted a 30-year sentence Tuesday afternoon in Hardin Circuit Court as part of a plea agreement.
Adam Mathers, 27, was arrested March 3 for starting a fire February 26 inside an Elizabethtown residence.
According to a complaint warrant, Mathers and his girlfriend had been involved in a domestic violence situation that day. The woman said in the warrant Mathers went to a back room in the mobile home where he retrieved a can of lighter fluid and began spraying it on the kitchen stove.
When the kitchen became engulfed in flames, Mathers continued to spray lighter fluid on the fire and the surrounding walls, according to an arrest report.
The woman told police, according to a warrant, she attempted to leave the residence with a child earlier that day, but Mathers blocked the door shoving her and the child back inside.
Originally charged with first-degree arson, that charge was amended to second-degree arson. He also was sentenced as a persistent felony offender making the arson charge a Class A felony punishable by 20 to 50 years, or life in prison.
He also was sentenced to one year on a fourth-degree assault charge. The assault and arson charges will run concurrently for a total 30-year sentence. Mathers will be eligible for parole after serving 20 percent of his sentence which is six years.
Mathers has been lodged in the Hardin County Detention Center in lieu of $50,000 cash bond since March 3.
Source: NE
You must be logged in to post a comment.