In a plea-and-sentence agreement, a New Florence man was ordered yesterday to serve three months of house arrest for trying to set a fire at his girlfriend’s apartment in January of last year.
21-year-old William Teeter pleaded guilty to felony risking a catastrophe for hitting his girlfriend with a cell phone, then setting the fire by lighting a pair of her sweatpants and tossing them onto a bed comforter and a plastic bag at her St. Clair Manor apartment. There were five others in the apartment, but no one was injured.
Charges of arson, simple assault, and reckless endangerment will not be prosecuted. The plea bargain was announced minutes before jury selection was scheduled to begin in the courtroom of Judge Meagan Bilik-Defazio. Teeter will also serve two years of probation and undergo emotion management counseling plus drug and alcohol treatment, if deemed necessary.
