Jamee Roderick McArthur

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LUMBERTON — A Fairmont man has been sentenced to a maximum of three years and six months in prison after pleading guilty to arson, according to Lt. Brian Duckworth, a fire investigator with the Robeson County Sheriff’s Office.

Jamee Roderick McArthur, 27, of N.C. 130 Bypass, pleaded guilty to first-degree arson and burning of personal property on May 8 and was sentenced by Judge Ruben Young, Duckworth said.

According to Duckworth, McArthur was charged with arson after he tried three times to set his girlfriend’s home at 7332 E. Raynham Road, Fairmont, on fire on June 26, 2011, while she, their daughter and two other people were asleep in the home.

Duckworth said that on McArthur’s third attempt to set the house on fire, he lit a rug on fire and set it on the steps to the back door of the home. A neighbor saw the burning rug and pulled it away from the home.

McArthur first tried to set the home on fire by lighting the plastic underpinning of a corner of the home, but could not catch it on fire, Duckworth said. He then tried stuffing paper under the home on another corner of the home, which burned a hand-sized portion of the underside of the home.

The fire caused at least $1,000 worth of damage to the home, Duckworth said.

The home belongs to Ann King, of Richmond, Ky. Duckworth said that Kasandra Grimisley, who was living in the home at the time, was in the process of filing domestic violence charges against McArthur. She and McArthur have a daughter together.

McArthur will have to pay $1,500 in restitution to King along with attorney fees and court cost.

Matt Scott, an assistant district attorney, prosecuted the case.