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Sentenced handed down in Delight church fire case

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The Delight Crossroad Assembly of God the morning of Sept. 3, 2017

The Murfreesboro woman charged with burning down a Delight church was sentenced Monday, Aug. 6 after entering a plea to an amended charge.

Sarah Jane Humphry, 34, pleaded “no contest” to the charges of reckless burning and breaking or entering and was sentenced to a total of 25 years in the Arkansas Department of Correction with nine years suspended.

Humphry, who out of prison on parole at the time of the crime, was originally charged with arson for the fire that destroyed the Crossroad Assembly of God Church in Delight the morning of Sept. 3, 2017.

After an investigation determined the church fire had been deliberately set, Humphry turned herself in to Pike County authorities and was interviewed Sept. 10, 2017. She confessed involvement in the fire and stated that she had initially stopped to get a drink from the unlocked church and then later returned for vehicle gas, which she said she spilled while inside and then lit a cigarette that started the fire.

Humphry also said she removed some items from the church to keep them from burning, hid them in the woods and later returned to pick up the items. The property was recovered from her home in Murfreesboro.

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