By Margaret Matray
The Virginian-Pilot
ACCOMAC, Va. — Convicted arsonist Tonya S. Bundick will serve 10.5 behind bars on three felony charges related to two fires set in 2013.
Judge Glen A. Tyler sentenced Bundick today in Accomack County Circuit Court to seven years on one count of arson and seven years on one count of conspiracy in an April 2013 fire in Melfa, with those sentences to be served concurrently. Bundick entered an Alford plea to those two charges at a trial in January.
The judge also sentenced her to 3.5 years and $10,000 in fines in a March 2013 arson at a Keller labor camp. That sentence will be served consecutively to her other sentence. Bundick also must pay $30,000 in restitution, but that is conditional because it was not clear whether it was to be paid to an insurance company or to the company that owns the burned building, the judge said. A jury found her guilty of that arson at a July trial.
Bundick still faces 61 additional arson charges in connection with a five-month spree on the Eastern Shore. Those cases will be tried separately.
The judge today denied Bundick’s request to withdraw her Alford pleas in the April 1, 2013, case. Under that plea she didn’t admit guilt but acknowledged there was enough evidence to convict her.
Bundick, 41, is accused, along with former fiance Charles R. Smith III, of setting more than 60 fires on the Eastern Shore in a five-month spree from November 2012 to April 2013.
This is the first sentencing in the case.
At her January trial, Bundick entered an Alford plea to one count each of arson and conspiracy in connection with an April 2013 fire in Melfa. The plea meant she did not admit guilt but acknowledged the prosecutor likely had presented enough evidence for a conviction.
At a trial in July, a jury found Bundick guilty of arson in the March 2013 burning of a Keller camp for workers. That jury recommended a sentence of 3-1/2 years incarceration and $10,000 in fines. Both trials were moved to Virginia Beach over concerns of finding an impartial jury in Accomack County.
Bundick faces 61 additional arson counts, and a judge ruled she can have separate trials on each one.
Smith pleaded guilty last year to 67 counts of arson and one count of conspiracy. He has yet to be sentenced and faces a maximum of 584 years in prison and about $5.6 million in fines.
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