By Rick Pfeiffer
The Niagara Gazette
NORTH TONAWANDA, N.Y. — A North Tonawanda serial arsonist will spend more than a decade behind bars and may not return to live in her former neighborhood when she is released from prison.
On Friday, Niagara County Court Judge Sara Sheldon sentenced Michelle Johnston, 42, to 12 years in prison on her guilty plea to two counts of attempted second-degree arson. Johnston pleaded guilty to the counts in January after originally being charged with nine counts of arson.
Johnston had been accused of sparking 11 fires in her Fifth Avenue neighborhood between June 20 and July 23. Two of those blazes were set after Johnston had been released on bail from her arrest for starting the other fires.
Sheldon also ordered Johnston to pay $40,000 in restitution to her neighbors who were the victims of her fires. Three of the homes were occupied at the time of the arsons.
During the summer, arson investigators began looking at the Fifth Avenue blazes after the street saw four fires in less than 36 hours.
Police say Johnston set an elderly neighbor’s house on fire several times over the summer and then started more fires, including at her own home.
A surveillance camera on another nearby home recorded video of Johnston setting a fire and that led to her arrest.
Johnston could not tell police why she started the fires. She said she didn’t have any animosity toward her neighbors. Police haven’t discussed a possible motive.
When Sheldon asked Johnston why she set the fires, she wept so hard she could not answer.
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(c)2015 the Niagara Gazette (Niagara Falls, N.Y.)
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