GREENFIELD — The woman accused of setting fire to a home in 100 block of Forest Avenue earlier this week is now facing multiple felony charges.
Donya L. Jordan, 44, Noblesville, was arrested Tuesday on preliminary charges of arson. Thursday, prosecutors officially charged Jordan with a Level 4 felony count of arson; a Level 4 felony count of burglary; Class A misdemeanor charges of theft and criminal mischief-damage; and a Class B misdemeanor charge of criminal mischief.
If convicted, Jordan is facing up to 12 years in prison on each of the more serious felony charges.
According to a probable cause affidavit filed in support of the charges, the fire was considered suspicious almost from the outset. It was reported at about 11:30 p.m. Saturday, and by the time firefighters arrived, flames already were coming out of a rear corner of the single-story home. The person who lived there was not home, and no one was injured. The home was considered a total loss, the Greenfield Fire Territory said.
Investigators quickly learned that the homeowner suspected his ex-girlfriend might have set the fire. The homeowner told authorities the woman had threatened to burn down his property in the past, the affidavit said.
The man told officials he had been receiving text messages from his ex-girlfriend all day prior to the fire saying he owed her money and she was coming to get it, the affidavit said.
Officials were able to obtain video footage of Jordan’s vehicle at the house before the fire broke out, the court document said. During her first interview with investigators, Jordan said she had been in a relationship with the man who lived in the home but that they had broken up. She then admitted to being at the house the night of the fire but told officials she never went inside.
The next day, according to the affidavit, Jordan called investigators and told them she believed she was responsible for setting the fire. In another interview, she admitted to going to the house to confront her ex-boyfriend but had no intent to set his house on fire. However, once she looked through a window and saw a dog inside, which she knew belonged to another woman, she snapped.
Jordan told police she entered the home through a window, grabbed the dog and put him in her car and then dropped it off at a subdivision in Greenfield, the affidavit shows. The dog later was found safe.
Jordan returned to the house to get some of her belongings, she said, but upon seeing the belongings of another woman Jordan went into a rage and began throwing things, the court document said.
After vandalizing the woman’s car, which was parked in the garage, Jordan told police she recalled seeing a “flash of red” in the bedroom before she left. She told police she believes she may have started the fire from a cigarette, but she denied using an accelerant or a lighter to start the fire.
Jordan had her initial hearing before a judge in Hancock County Court Thursday afternoon. Cash bond has been set at $10,000, and her next court appearance is scheduled for Sept. 19.
Jordan was still in the Hancock County Jail as of Friday afternoon.
