ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, January 3, 1997 TAG: 9701030111
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LAURENCE HAMMACK STAFF WRITER
A Roanoke man was arrested Thursday for allegedly setting fire to a house where four small children had just been put to bed.
No one was injured in the fire Monday at 1309 Stewart Ave. S.E., police said.
Peter Arcario said he was putting his children - ages 11, 9, 6 and 2 - to bed about 11 p.m. when he smelled what seemed to be kerosene and then smoke coming from the kitchen. He then went outside and opened a door to a half-basement under the house and saw three plastic snow sleds in flames on a workbench.
Arcario said he and his wife and children had been living in the house since August, and that he had not had any problems with anyone.
Police charged Douglas Ray Letchford, 21, of Southeast Roanoke with one count of arson of an occupied dwelling. Letchford, who was arrested after an interview earlier in the week with a detective, was being held without bond Thursday night in the Roanoke City Jail.
Authorities would not comment about a possible motive in the case, but an assistant fire marshal determined that the fire was intentionally set.
In an unrelated report Thursday, a Roanoke man told police that two masked men came into his apartment early Thursday and robbed him at gunpoint.
Police arrested two suspects a short time later at an Orange Avenue motel.
John J. Leming, 26, told police that two men wearing camouflage masks entered his Templeton Avenue Northeast apartment about 12:30 a.m. Thursday. One of the men placed a handgun to his head and demanded money, Leming told police.
After Leming gave them $300, the robbers took a cellular telephone and fired one shot into the air as they left, police said.
Leming identified the men, and police later arrested Scott Allen Collins, 20, and Jerry Lee Weddle, 23, both of Bullitt Avenue Southeast, on robbery charges. Weddle was also charged with use of a firearm in the commission of a felony.
Police said the incident was not related to a series of robberies last year in Northwest Roanoke in which the assailants wore ski masks.
Staff writer Jonathan Hunley contributed to this story.
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