A Greensburg man pleaded guilty Monday to setting his house on fire.
Jeremiah N. Morgan, 41, was sentenced to spend up to two years, less a day, in the Westmoreland County Prison followed by five years of probation.
Morgan said he pleaded guilty to “get into treatment and get my life back together.” He was ordered to complete a drug and alcohol evaluation and be paroled directly to a treatment facility.
He has been jailed since June 15, 2019. Firefighters and police were called to Franklin Drive that evening for a report of smoke coming from the back of Morgan’s house. Investigators determined the fire was intentionally set in the kitchen and dining room area. A mortgage foreclosure action on the property had been filed a month earlier.
Morgan’s neighbors told police they saw him standing in front of his home about 10 minutes prior to the fire, according to court papers. No one was home at the time. Shortly after the flames were extinguished, officers said they arrested Morgan at a Hempfield hotel.
By entering a general plea to charges of arson and risking catastrophe, Morgan averted a potential state prison sentence that had been recommended by prosecutors under a tentative plea agreement.
Defense attorney John Hauser said the agreement called for a sentence of 18 months to four years in a state prison, but Morgan balked because he has already served the minimum time but wouldn’t immediately be released. Judge Christopher Feliciani said that if Morgan was sentenced to state prison, a state parole board would determine his release date, a process that could take some time.
