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Man pleads guilty in series of arsons in Vernon
VERNON, B.C. – A man from Vernon has pleaded guilty to arson just as his trial was about to start.
A jury trial was set to begin today, Oct. 1, for 56-year-old William Murray Phelps Munton, instead he pleaded guilty to seven counts of arson in B.C. Supreme Court.
The plea comes after a series of deliberately set fires in Vernon in 2014.
Dan McLaughlin, a spokesman for the B.C. Prosecution Service, says one of the fires Munton admitted to starting destroyed the grandstands at a former horse racing facility, while other fires were set in two homes under construction, on a boat and in a motorhome.
No one was injured in the fires.
Munton was arrested and charged in 2016 and he returns to court on Oct. 15 to fix a date for sentencing.
In a separate case, Munton was acquitted of child pornography charges after a judge ruled police did not obtain the evidence legally.
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