West Toledo woman sentenced to 2 years for arson

8/29/2018

A West Toledo woman was sentenced to two years in prison Wednesday for setting a couch ablaze to get a man’s attention during a child custody issue.

“You are very fortunate the fire was able to be extinguished before it caused any damage to the property and more importantly before it caused physical harm to any of the occupants,” Lucas County Common Pleas Court Judge Linda Jennings told Tyeisha Bell, 26, who was sentenced for aggravated arson, a second-degree felony. 

Bell entered an Alford plea — not admitting guilt — on Aug. 14. She faced up to eight years in prison for the offense. 

She poured cooking oil on a couch on the front porch of a residence in the 1800 block of Talbot, then set the furniture on fire while her boyfriend and one of her children’s fathers, Tyrone Cannon, was asleep inside the home on June 7. 

Bell wanted the man’s assistance with a child custody issue with Lucas County Children Services and “dysfunctionally” set the couch ablaze, her attorney John Thebes said.

“It may not seem to an objective mind that is the rational thing to do, but then when you consider a parent’s love for a child and the lack of any substantial record that Tyeisha has ... one starts to understand initially why she did what she did,” Mr. Thebes said. 

Bell gave conflicting statements on why she committed the offense, but it was unjustified, whatever the reason, Judge Jennings said.

Bell will also be required to register as an arson offender and pay $449.27 to the Toledo Fire and Rescue Department. 

Contact Allison Dunn at adunn@theblade.com, 419-724-6506, or on Twitter @AllisonDBlade.