Associated Press
ERIE, Pa. — An inmate must serve an additional six months to two years in prison for setting fire to his solitary confinement cell in a northwestern Pennsylvania county jail the day before he was to move to a state prison to serve 15 to 30 years for a pizza shop robbery.
The Erie Times-News reports 30-year-old Carlos Diane-Cruz was sentenced Monday, immediately after pleading guilty to setting the fire Jan. 7 at the Erie County Prison.
Diane-Cruz had been sentenced in December for the 2011 pizza shop heist and his public defender says Diane-Cruz was trying to commit suicide by setting the fire by sticking items in an electrical socket in his cell.
Assistant public defender Michael DeJohn says Diane-Cruz suffers from bipolar disorder and other mental issues.
Other inmates were evacuated but not hurt by the fire.