A Chicago woman pleaded guilty Wednesday to setting a fire inside a west suburban apartment last year because she was mad at her boyfriend for smoking all their marijuana.
Linda B. Lopez, 35, of the 2800 block of S. Drake, pleaded guilty to residential arson, according to a statement from Riverside police. She had initially been charged with aggravated arson, but the charge was reduced.
Lopez was sentenced to four years in prison and ordered to pay $1,000 in restitution, according to the statement.
Lopez had been living in an apartment in the 2900 block of Harlem in Riverside for two weeks when she set the fire on April 28, 2013, according to police.
She told police she fell asleep, and when she woke up, her marijuana was gone. She accused her live-in boyfriend, and the argument turned violent, with Lopez punching and threatening to stab him with a knife, according to police.
She then punctured a plastic perfume bottle, poured the perfume on some towels in the hallway and set the towels on fire, according to police.
The Riverside Fire Department quickly put out the blaze, which damaged an apartment door, wall and floor; and the adjacent hallway, police said.
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Police learned that Lopez had been staying in the apartment after the previous tenant, whom they knew, moved out with rent paid through the end of the month, police said.
The couple had been “partying and consuming large amounts of heroin on a daily basis,” according to the statement.
