John Jefferson
Inset: Merchelle Adams (Milwaukee County Jail). Background: The home she set on fire, killing a 60-year-old man (WITI/YouTube).
A judge Friday sentenced a Wisconsin woman to 11 years in prison for intentionally setting a home on fire that killed a blind man inside sleeping on a mattress.
Merchelle Adams, 63, pleaded guilty to second-degree reckless homicide in July in the death of 60-year-old Anthony Winters, court records show. After serving her prison sentence, she will be on probation for 9 years.
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The Milwaukee Fire Department responded on July 11, 2023, to a blaze near 29th and Bobolink. When they got there, firefighters saw flames coming from the second-floor. They cleared the basement and first floor, but could hear a man later identified as Winters yelling for help. However the flames were so intense that firefighters could not get to the man. The fire was so hot a firefighter’s face mask melted, local Fox affiliate WITI reported, citing prosecutors.
Firefighters could not rescue Winters in time and they pronounced him dead after they got to him.
CBS affiliate WDJT, citing an arrest affidavit, said a witness told Milwaukee police that he was in his car when he saw flames coming from the second story and Adams walk from the home to some rocks across the street where she sat down.
When cops asked her about the incident, she reportedly said “I set the fire” and started laughing. She then allegedly said there was a “blind man in there…that’s what he gets.” Police took Adams into custody for further questioning.
Adams reportedly went on to say that she set to fire because of his previous domestic violence against her. She said Winters the two were drinking beer when he asked her if she wanted to go get food but she declined because he was drunk, the complaint reportedly said. That spurned an argument and Adams said Winters pushed her out of a chair. She then reportedly admitted to setting the mattress on fire while he was sleeping. Adams told the victim to put the fire out, but she ran out of the home after he asked for help, the complaint reportedly said.
Cops arrested her and took her to jail where she’s been ever since. Adams was originally charged with first-degree reckless homicide and arson before she took the plea deal. She’ll receive over 400 days worth of credit for the jail time she already served.
Winters was a retired factory worker who became legally blind in recent years, his family told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. He enjoyed painting and drawing and didn’t let his poor vision stop him from continuing the hobby in the last years of his life.
“Everybody loved him,” his sister-in-law, Doris Winters told the newspaper.
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