Two women plead guilty to setting mobile home fire

One of two women accused last fall of setting fire to a Bradley mobile home pleaded guilty to the charge Wednesday in Bangor.

Marisa Myers, 21, of Greenville, Miss., will be sentenced for arson after a background investigation ordered by Justice Eugene Beaulieu. The Class A charge carries a maximum 40-year sentence, but if the judge goes along with the plea agreement, Myers will serve no more than one year in prison.

Myers and Kimberly Schoenherr, 19, of Houston, Texas, were indicted in November for allegedly setting a fire in mid-October that demolished the Route 178 home of Bruce King. According to earlier accounts, the home was vacant except for a few people who stayed there occasionally. Myers and Schoenherr had spent a few nights in the home.

Assistant District Attorney Gregory Campbell, summarizing for the judge the prosecution’s case against Myers, said that evidence would have included testimony from state Trooper Barry Curtis that Myers had admitted being at the trailer when the fire started, but denied actually setting it. Two male friends of the women, said Campbell, also would have testified that Myers and Schoenherr had told them that they had “torched” the home.

Although Myers, according to courtroom statements, did not actually set the fire, the potential penalty is the same as if she had. Beaulieu explained in court that under the law, accomplices to a crime are treated the same as principal participants.

Campbell said that the plea agreement with the defense, called for a split sentence — part incarceration, part suspended but with the threat of incarceration for further violations — with a cap of one year in prison and defense attorney Gary Growe free to argue for less time.

Schoenherr’s case is pending, and Deputy District Attorney Michael P. Roberts said Myers might be subpoenaed to testify. Myers has been jailed since her indictment last November pending sentencing on bail set at $10,000 double surety.