A Midlands man is going to prison for more than a dozen years after pleading guilty to charges connected to setting the fire that destroyed his ex-girlfriend’s home, while she and her children slept inside, the 8th Circuit Solicitor’s Office said Wednesday.
On Monday, 29-year-old Newberry resident Jorge Mora-Vahena pleaded guilty to second-degree arson and first-degree assault and battery charges, the solicitor’s office said in a news release.
Mora-Vahena was sentenced to 10 years in prison on the arson charge and five years on the assault charge, with that sentence suspended to 30 months, according to the release. The sentences are to run consecutively.
When he was arrested on Nov. 21, 2022, Mora-Vahena was also charged with second-degree domestic violence, unlawfully placing a child at risk of or cause of harm or willfully abandon the child, and two counts of attempted murder, Newberry County jail records show.
He was credited for 142 days of time served on the domestic violence charge, while the other crimes were dismissed, according to jail records. There was no word why the other charges were not prosecuted.
The fire happened Sept. 14, 2022, the solicitor’s office said. In the early morning hours, emergency crews were dispatched to the victim’s home where she and her two children had been sleeping, according to the release.
The family made it out of the burning building, but their family pet did not, and the home was destroyed, the solicitor’s office said.
Following an investigation by the Newberry Fire Department, Newberry Police Department, and Newberry County Sheriff’s Office, it was determined that the fire had been intentionally set, according to the release.
Mora-Vahena’s phone records placed him at the victim’s residence at the time of the fire, and when confronted with the phone records, he confessed to starting the fire, the solicitor’s office said.
“It takes a malicious, evil heart to set a home on fire where children are sleeping,” Solicitor David Stumbo said in the release. “I am pleased that Jorge Mora-Vahena will be behind bars for a long time, and we will continue to stand with our partners in law enforcement to fight this scourge of domestic violence in our communities.”
Assistant Solicitor Bret Price and Senior Assistant Solicitor Taylor Daniel handled the case for the solicitor’s office, with assistance from 8th Circuit Investigator Jared Hunnicutt and Sgt. Caitlyn Branch of the Newberry Police Department.
Mora-Vahena was represented by Charles Verner of the Newberry Public Defender’s Office.
This is not the first time Mora-Vahena was arrested.
In 2018, Mora-Vahena pleaded guilty to a DUI charge, and the following year he was found guilty of a drug possession charge stemming from the same arrest, Newberry County court records show.