Lou. ‘wreath fires’ arsonist gets 20 years

Flags, buildings, dumpsters, car carpets, lawn mowers, bushes, door wreaths and phone books — all were targets of Linda Lee’s flames. In total, more than 30 people over a 19-month period were victimized by Lee, who was sentenced Thursday to serve 20 years for her spree.

Melinda Eaton’s home was hit in May 2014 just before midnight. A flaming wreath on her front porch caught the attention of a neighbor before it could spread further.

“Not a day goes by that I’m not reminded of what happened or could have happened,” she wrote in a victim impact statement submitted to the court, adding she hopes Lee “get the counseling she desperately needs.”

Speaking at Thursday’s sentencing, Eaton asked the judge to impose the full 20-year sentence.

“I don’t think she understands the gravity of what she did,” Eaton said.

Beginning in December 2012 and in nearly every month through June 2014, Lee set fires to others’ property. Many of the incidents occurred in the middle of the night as the dwellers slept, resulting mostly in property damages and some minor injuries, court documents show.

Arson investigators labeled the spree the “wreath fires” as they worked the case for months, Maj. Henry Ott, the recently retired commander of the Metro Arson Bureau, said last year.

Some of the victims were picked at random, while others had offended her in some way, according to Ott and arrest reports.

“She was under great family pressure that became overbearing, and her response was to drink and set fires,” Ott told the newspaper last month. “I sympathized with her but told her what she was doing was dangerous.”

Some of those victims as well as a dozen firefighters from area fire departments watched Thursday morning in Jefferson Circuit Court as Judge Ann Bailey Smith sentenced Lee, 55.

One of Lee’s attorneys, Brian Butler, said in court that part of Lee’s posted bond, $13,240, will be used as restitution to the victims.

She accepted a plea agreement in July for 20 years on 30 counts of second-degree arson, five years on one count of third-degree arson and five years on 18 counts of first-degree wanton endangerment. Those sentences will run together for a total of 20 years.

Lee did not make a statement in court Thursday, but did give a statement to the probation officer who compiled a report ahead of sentencing, Butler said.

“It’s important to note she took full responsibility and she has made great strides in dealing with her issues and proving over the last year that she’s never going to do anything like this again,” Butler said.

Many victims submitted statements to the court ahead of Lee’s sentencing.

One family whose door wreath was set aflame asked Smith to impose the maximum sentence. “This person set the front of my house on fire while I and my family were sleeping!” the homeowner wrote. “This could have had a much more serious outcome.”

“To say I feel safe in my own home anymore, I do not,” wrote another homeowner whose front porch furniture and attic insulation were burned.

One women near Hikes Point lost a motorcycle to the fire, her only means of transportation.

A husband and wife, who both use wheelchairs, wrote they could not escape their Jeffersontown-area home through their flaming front door and were forced to use a bedroom door that was extremely difficult to exit.

“We were terrified,” they wrote. “This woman was a stranger to us whom we had not harmed in any way and yet she tried to kill us.”

One couple told the court, “It makes us uneasy in our own home ... the fact that a person you don’t even know would try to harm you is disconcerting.”

The spree came to an end in June 2014 after firefighters saw a car matching a description of Lee’s fleeing a fire.

Her attorney said Lee has sought counseling since the arrest and has been cooperative with authorities.

“She’s a very, very different person today than she was a year ago,” Butler said, adding Lee plans to file in the coming months for shock probation, which is designed to release first-time, non-violent offenders from prison.

Capt. Chris Jenkins of the Metro Arson Bureau was joined Thursday in court by members of the Jeffersontown, Buechel, Louisville and McMahan fire departments. He said the number of incidents and the area that Lee covered set the case apart.

“I’ve been here 18 years,” he said, “and I’ve never seen anything like this.”

Reporter Matthew Glowicki can be reached at (502) 582-4989. Follow him on Twitter at @MattGlo.