Scott Glenn Willett of Gassville was sentenced to eight years in prison on charges he burned his mother’s home on Wildcat Shoals Road in early September of last year, even after emotional testimony from his mother in which she said she had forgiven her son for his actions and begged the court to spare her son jail time.
The 25-year-old Willett had earlier entered a guilty plea to the charges and the sentencing hearing was held Thursday,
Willett will also owe restitution in the case representing the value of the mobile home his mother lived in as well as personal belongings destroyed in the blaze with the exact figure to be determined.
On the day of the fire, Baxter County Deputies and fire fighters responded to a call at the Wildcat Shoals residence and found it fully engulfed in flames. Scott Willett’s initial story had him arriving at the scene, finding the fire burning and emergency units already there. He at first denied any knowledge of how the fire started.
A neighbor had video surveillance cameras on his property and provided investigators with footage to establish a time line and chain of events related to the fire. The video footage showed Willett leaving the residence just after 11:30 am., September 5th of last year, and less than a minute later, smoke could be seen coming from the rear of the mobile home.
When questioned further, Willett allegedly confessed to setting the fire, saying he had thrown a lit torch on his mother’s bed before leaving the residence. He is alleged to have said God had told him to do it.
Willett’s mother, Sherry Plumlee, testified a number of horror-filled events had taken place at the home, including the suicide of her husband, and she felt the only way to rid herself of these memories was to burn the house down. Willett’s attorney, Andrew Bailey, asked Plumlee if she had ever told her son about those thoughts and she said he was aware of her feelings.
There has been an on-going conflict between Willett and his mother. A substantial number of incident reports have been filed by the Baxter County Sheriff’s Office in which Willett has, at various times, allegedly made threats to kill his mother and burn her residence.
Willett’s mother had taken out orders of protection against her son and then dropped them. In one court filing she said she dropped the effort to obtain a protective order because her son had threatened to kill her and burn down her home unless she did so. Deputies were called to the home at one point and found candles burning and a glass candleholder with smoldering cotton balls that had been place in the master bedroom.
During another encounter with Willett, deputies were forced to use a stun gun to subdue him.
Willett’s ex-father-in-law had also filed for an order of protection against him after Willett allegedly refused to leave the father-in-law’s house after arriving uninvited in early February last year. In the report of that incident, Willett was told he was not welcome and as he was being escorted out of the residence, he is reported to have hit his ex-father-in-law twice, then gone to his truck, retrieved two machetes, and began chopping at hedges and other objects in the yard.
Willett’s mother said through tears it was her hope that if her son was spared prison, he might re-unite with his family. She said he had “three beautiful children”. In answer to a question from 14th Judicial District Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Kerry Chism, Plumlee said her son had “trashed” her trailer on occasions prior to the fire. She said she was also awareher son had used methamphetamine.
Chism said a psychologist, who had examined Willett, had said it was his opinion Willett behaved more out of anger than any other motivating factor when he torched his mother’s home.
Bailey asked Judge John Putman to sentenced Willett to something short of prison while Chism said the state recommended he receive a 10 year sentence. Judge Putman gave Willett eight years and ordered the payment of restitution. He said Willett had cause a great deal of pain for his mother. The judge said he had been put in a position to cause her even more pain when he turned down the request for leniency and gave Willett prison time. “You can’t have people burning down houses out of anger” without suffering the consequences, Judge Putman said.
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