Suspect in fire at MCCTC charged with felony arson

YOUNGSTOWN — Aggravated-arson charges have been filed against a girl accused of setting the multimillion-dollar fire last May that destroyed a wing of the Mahoning County Career and Technical Center in Canfield.

Two felony charges were filed Friday against Pamela Schindler, who was 17 when an original charge of criminal damaging and a charge of obstructing official business were filed against her in July after a three-month investigation by Canfield police.

Schindler had been set to go on trial Monday in the county juvenile court on those original charges, but they were dropped so that the county juvenile prosecutor’s office could consider the more serious charges.

After further investigation this week, the prosecutor’s office determined that those more serious charges were warranted, said Kerry Limbian, an assistant prosecutor who is working on the case.

The arson charges, one a first-degree felony and the other a second-degree felony, carry a component that Schindler knowingly caused the fire, Limbian said.

The criminal damaging charge implied she either knowingly or recklessly did so, Limbian added. The original obstructing charge, a second-degree misdemeanor, also was refiled Friday, Limbian said.

Schindler’s arraignment on the new charges is set for Jan. 28 in juvenile court in the Martin P. Joyce Juvenile Justice Center, she said.

The May 4 fire started in a multimedia art lab in the main building of the school on Palmyra Road when a bucket of solvent students were using spilled paint caught fire.

Police said their investigation revealed Schindler lighted a cigarette lighter near the bucket.

The fire was estimated to have caused at least $8 million in damage.

Schindler is from the South Range school district.

Another tech center student, Kyle J. Layne, 19, of Homeworth Road, Alliance, also was charged in the blaze.

Layne was charged with obstructing official business by not providing accurate information during the investigation, police said. He pleaded no contest to the charge in September, was found guilty, fined and placed on probation.