Granny gets 4 years for torching landlord's home

Date published: 2/3/2007

BY KEITH EPPS

A 72-year-old woman who paid her teenage grandson to torch her landlord's home was ordered yesterday to serve four years in prison.

Nola Mae Williams, of Falmouth was sentenced to a total of 30 years in Stafford Circuit Court. Judge H. Harrison Braxton Jr. suspended all but four years.

Williams, who pleaded guilty to arson, breaking and entering and criminal solicitation, is in a wheelchair.

But according to prosecutor Lori DiGiosia, that didn't stop her from destroying her landlord's home and endangering her 15-year-old grandson.

A home belonging to James Braco at 162 Brooke Road in southern Stafford was torched on Nov. 25, 2005, causing more than $100,000 worth of damage.

Fire investigators quickly developed a 15-year-old suspect who told them that Williams, his grandmother, had hired him for the job.

Braco's company owns the trailer park Williams was living in, and he had sent her an eviction notice a few days before the fire. Residents had circulated a petition requesting her removal.

According to the evidence, Williams knew that Braco was getting ready to sell the house, and she wanted to stop him from making any money off it.

She picked the boy up that night and provided him with gloves, a black hat, a hammer, a lighter, towels and a can of gasoline.

She then drove him to Braco's home and instructed him on how to burn it.

The boy broke into the home and set the fire, then rode with Williams to her nearby home.

After realizing the fire had gone out, according to witnesses, an agitated Williams took the boy to get more fuel and returned to the home. This time, the fire took and quickly gutted a section of the home. The boy got out only a short time before an explosion. He was paid $150 for his efforts.

After he was identified as a suspect, the boy helped authorities by setting up Williams in a phone sting.

During the recorded conversation, Williams made incriminating statements about the fire and talked about possibly burning down her own trailer so that Braco wouldn't be able to rent it.

She also said that she once burned a trailer in Fredericksburg and collected insurance money.

DiGiosia yesterday argued that Williams deserved a long sentence. Her criminal record includes convictions for cocaine and marijuana distribution.

"She is an absolute menace, and she had been for many, many years," DiGiosia said.

Defense attorney George Marzloff asked for leniency, citing Williams' failing health.

"She is more suited for a nursing home than a jail cell," Marzloff said.

The boy was convicted of arson in juvenile court. He served time in juvenile detention and has since been released.

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Date published: 2/3/2007

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