Hearing set for woman charged in fatal boarding house fire
PITTSBURGH (AP) – A woman is due in court on charges she set a Pittsburgh boarding house fire that killed its owner and two other residents.
Forty-two-year-old Latoya Lyerly is charged with criminal homicide and arson in the Feb. 17 fire.
Seventy-three-year-old Derlyn Vance owned the house and died along with two other residents.
Lyerly doesn’t have an attorney listed in court records.
Police say she told them she set the fire because the boarding house was “filled with demons” and people who did drugs and had sex. But neighbors and previous residents say Vance helped those who had fallen on hard times, like Lyerly, who was allowed to live there for free by cooking and cleaning for Vance.
Police say she threatened to burn down the home the night before after Vance told her to turn down her radio.