By JAN LARSON McLAUGHLIN
BG Independent News
A man who set himself and his rental home on fire in Bowling Green was sentenced Thursday in Wood County Common Pleas Court.
Thomas M. Imondi, 55, now living in Jerry City, was ordered to register as an arson offender for the rest of his life. He was ordered to pay restitution, spend 180 days with electronic home monitoring, serve 300 hours of community work, and have no contact with the owner of the home he set on fire.
Judge Reeve Kelsey told Imondi if he failed to comply, the court reserves the right to impose a total prison sentence of nine years.
Imondi accepted a plea deal for aggravated arson and forgery charges involving failure to pay rent for about nine months. He admitted to purposely setting himself and his rental home at 921 Sunset Drive on fire in the early morning hours of June 9, 2017.
Initially, Imondi told police someone had set him and his home on fire. He told police he heard someone outside his residence and as he looked out the window, the person threw an accelerant on him then lit the bedroom and him on fire. Some of Imondi’s clothing caught fire.
Imondi reportedly suffered minor chest burns and had singed eyebrows.
The state fire marshal’s office and arson investigators were called in. Based on the evidence and interviews with Imondi, he was charged with arson.
Imondi was the only person inside the home at the time, officials said.
During his statement to the court on Thursday, Imondi listed several items he considered as contributing factors to his actions. Among them were suspected PTSD, a large dose of Ambien taken the night of the arson, and his rumination on his big brother being a “closeted arsonist” and his parents being cremated.
Imondi said he believed the arson was a “suicide attempt.”
But the owner of the home, Melissa Shaffer, said she had heard enough of his stories. She could not be present at the sentencing, but wrote a letter that was read aloud by Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Dave Romaker.
Shaffer said Imondi had tried to explain away his crimes with “elaborate stories or lies.” She considered him guilty of “scamming” her by failing to pay rent for nine months and making up “elaborate false excuses.”
The arson left Shaffer homeless, since Imondi was supposed to be moving out and she was on her way back to Bowling Green to live in the Sunset Drive home after teaching out of state. She described the hardship of living with a neighbor and in a hotel during repairs to the fire-damaged home. Shaffer, who rescues deaf dogs, wrote about the difficulties it caused to move the dogs around separate them during the repairs to the home.
She has since returned to her home.
“He has created a false imaginary life for people,” Shaffer said of Imondi. And she has no more sympathy, she said.
In his statement to the court, Imondi said that Shaffer was “justifiably aggrieved.”
“It has been my own actions that have injured her,” he said.
“She seems like a wonderful person with a very big heart,” Imondi said of Shaffer. “I’m genuinely sorry to have injured her. She did place trust in me.”
Imondi went on to describe possible reasons for his behavior that night.
“I have long suspected for years that I have suffered from certain aspects of PTSD,” he said, adding that he had missed signs over the years that “insidiously I had been suffering from quiet PTSD.”
Imondi said he has no memory of the arson, other than what he was seen and heard on audio and video tapes of police interviewing him that night at the hospital.
Imondi also said he had taken a “large dose” of the sleep aid Ambien that night – which can have side effects such as hallucinations and memory loss, he said.
He continued on, telling the judge that he had “suffered broad-based holistic loss in life,” experienced a failed marriage, and was going through a period of “extreme despondency.”
Imondi said he has since received counseling, and recently married a woman with six children. Together, he and his wife have started a business where they buy antiques from estate sales and then resell them.
“All I can do now is to be a better man, a better husband and a father,” Imondi told the court.
It was noted that prior to the arson, Imondi had limited involvement with the criminal justice system – including a criminal trespass charge in 2010 and traffic offenses.
Kelsey ordered Imondi to pay restitution of $6,000 to Shaffer and $2,362 to the state’s fire and explosion investigation unit. The defendant was given 180 days of electronic home monitoring, being allowed to leave his residence for work, medical related appointments and regularly scheduled church activities.
Imondi must also comply with all probation requirements, perform 300 hours of community service work, and have no contact with Shaffer.
