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Woman charged in Plant City fire

By SAUNDRA AMRHEIN
Published February 25, 2005

PLANT CITY - A 58-year-old woman has been charged with seven counts of arson in a fire that caused $3-million in damage to a block-long section of the city's historic district.

Investigators say the fire was started Monday night in the back room of Mark Electronics by the owner's ex-girlfriend.

Angelica Ruth Lockett was charged Thursday in the fire that burned through the heart of Plant City's downtown, damaging seven businesses, said Detective Kevin Shireman with the state Fire Marshal's Office.

Lockett, who recently separated from the store's owner, Mark Simpson, entered the store Monday evening with a key copy, walked into a back room where Simpson had been sleeping on a makeshift bed and threw a lit cigarette on quilts on top of the bed, Shireman said.

Lockett cried as she confessed to officials after they began questioning her late Thursday morning, Shireman said. Her name had surfaced frequently during the investigation, he said.

"She told our detectives that it was not her intent to burn all seven businesses," he said. "She wanted to let (Simpson) know she was upset with the problems they were having, and she wanted to burn a hole in his sleeping bed."

Simpson could not be reached for comment.

Lockett was being held Thursday in the Hillsborough County Jail. Bail had not been set.

Other store owners and city officials reacted with shock at the news, while friends of Lockett were saddened.

"I don't have words for this," said Joe Grimes, owner of Your Family Jeweler, which burned down.

Businesses wiped out, and as many as 20 people out of work, "for something like a love spat," he said.

"That's just the craziest thing I ever heard."

[Last modified February 25, 2005, 00:51:16]