A Bryan woman has entered pleas in Williams County Common Pleas Court to charges that she set fire to an occupied residence last year, injuring its sleeping occupant.
Hope Williams, 41, pled guilty to two counts of aggravated arson, each a first-degree felony, accord¬ing to the office of Williams County Prosecutor Katherine Zartman.
Judge J.T. Stelzer ordered a pre-sentence investigation and continued Williams’ $500,000 cash bond. Sentencing was scheduled for 11 a.m. March 18.
In the meantime, Williams continues to be held at the Corrections Center of Northwest Ohio.
As part of the plea bargain between Zartman’s office and Ian Weber, the attorney representing Williams, the first degree felony charges of attempted murder and criminal use of an explosive device, along with second degree felony charges of felonious assault and two additional counts of aggravated arson, will be dismissed at sentencing.
In August, a Williams County grand jury alleged that on the morning of July 25, Williams used a ‘Molotov cocktail’, a homemade incendiary device, to set fire to a mobile home located on Lot 1 of 600 S. Union Street in Bryan.
The initial complaint filed by Bryan Police in Bryan Municipal Court prior to the grand jury indictment was returned, noted that at the time of the alleged incident, the home was occupied by Joshua Futch.
Futch was transported by Williams County EMS to Community Hospitals and Wellness Centers of Williams County, Bryan, before being transferred to another hospital.
The mobile home was destroyed by the fire, and a car on the lot also was damaged, along with an adjacent outbuilding and shed, according to the Bryan Fire Department.
The mobile home was removed from the scene after the investi¬gation by Bryan firefighters and the Ohio Fire Marshal’s Office concluded.