With her husband and teenage children inside, 38-year-old Sheryl Christman set fire to her home in foreclosure in order to escape her mortgage…and her family.
Christman has pleaded no contest to charges of arson after torching her home in Grand Rapids Township, Michigan.
Although a no contest plea is not an admission of guilt, it is treated as such at sentencing.
According to prosecutors, Christman wanted to get out of her mortgage on the $150,000 by burning down the home before it went into foreclosure and collecting the insurance money.
She also wanted to leave her family to be with her boyfriend, say prosecutors.
Christman set fire to mattresses in the garage on September 1, 2007.
The 38-year-old woman stood outside weeping while the home began to burn with her unwitting husband and three children were inside, according to investigators.
Her family was able to escape without physical injury.
According to investigators, Christman “had her story straight regarding the fire” and expected to collect her insurance check within a few months.
A local fire inspector initially declared the fire of undetermined origin, but an insurance investigator later ruled the blaze was the result of deliberate arson.
The boyfriend she planned to move in with agreed to wear a wire and recorded a conversation in which she admitted to setting the home ablaze.
In District Court, Christman shed tears as she sat before her husband and children, agreeing to the plea of no contest.
She faces up to 20 years in prison for arson, but could walk away with less than two years in County Jail because of her lack of a prior criminal record.
Christman has been released on a $20,000 bond.
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