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Last updated on Wednesday, July 15, 2015
(BEDFORD) - A Heltonville man will be sentenced on August 5 after he pled guilty to starting fires in Dunham’s and Walmart in December of last year.
According to court records, Dustin Taylor plead guilty to a felony count of arson in a negotiated plea deal. Superior Court I Judge Michael Robbins, if he accepts the plea deal, will sentence Taylor on August 5 at 1 p.m.
According to Bedford Police Chief Dennis Parsley, officers arrested Taylor after they caught him starting a fire in a restroom at the back of the Walmart store during the early morning hours of Saturday, December 13.
Officers were at Walmart investigating the Dunham fire when they were notified Taylor was in the store and had entered the rear bathroom.
"When the officer entered the restroom, they found Taylor had started a small fire," Parsley said at the time of the arrest. "Officers extinguished the fire and placed Mr. Taylor under arrest."
According to police, Taylor entered the Dunham store at 4:48 p.m. on Friday, December 12 and lit some cardboard on fire at the rear of the store near the where the guns and ammunition are on display.
"The store's manager, armed with fire extinguishers, doused the flames but not before the store was filled with smoke, setting off the store's sprinkler system," Parsley says.
The Bedford Fire Department was alerted and spent hours ventilating the building.
Detectives began reviewing in-store video and also found evidence at the scene that led them to Walmart to review store security video there. The items recovered at Dunham's had been purchased from Walmart.
"That is when they were informed the person they were looking for was in the store and had entered the restroom at the rear of the store," Pasley added. "When they entered the restroom they caught Mr. Taylor in the act of setting yet another fire."
Taylor was arrested without incident and no one was injured in either fire.
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