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Fire insurance company sues Seman
YOUNGSTOWN
A fire insurance company has sued Robert A. Seman Jr. for the $140,225 it paid out after the March 30, 2015, house fire that killed three people and that Seman is charged with setting.
Seman, 48, who is in Mahoning County jail, is charged with aggravated murder in the deaths of Corinne Gump, 10, and her grandparents, William and Judith Schmidt, in their Powers Way home. Seman faces the death penalty if convicted in the deaths.
Seman also faces aggravated arson and aggravated burglary charges in that criminal case. The trial has been moved to Portage County.
The civil lawsuit was filed Tuesday in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court by State Farm Fire and Casualty Co., which said the fire caused $140,725 in damage at the Schmidt residence.
The insurance policy issued to William Schmidt was subject to a $500 deductible, the company said in its complaint.
The civil complaint, filed by Atty. Steven J. Zeehandelar, of Columbus, alleges Seman, formerly of West Calla Road, Green Township, “negligently and/or intentionally” damaged the house, which was demolished in November 2015.
Judge Maureen A. Sweeney of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court granted a defense motion to move Seman’s criminal trial out of Mahoning County because intense pretrial publicity interfered with selection of an impartial jury here.
“This county is outside the local news feed and is an appropriate county to hold the trial,” Judge Sweeney wrote of Portage County in a Feb. 9 judgment entry.
No new criminal trial date is shown on the court docket.
The 3:30 a.m. fire erupted a few hours before Seman, who was then free on bond, was to go on trial on a charge that he had raped the girl.
That charge carried a potential life prison term because of the age of the purported victim.
When Seman appeared in her court on the morning of that fire, Judge Sweeney revoked his bond and ordered him jailed.