A mental competency examination was ordered Thursday for a woman accused of setting a fire in her room at a South Bay group home, leaving a tenant hospitalized from smoke inhalation.
Glenda Coronado, 47, will be evaluated by doctors and return to court Aug. 1.
At the defendant’s arraignment, Deputy District Attorney Kyle Sutterley told a judge that Coronado was angry at an employee at the group home on Donax Avenue in Palm City when she allegedly started a fire that caused an estimated $120,000 in damage on March 31.
One tenant was placed in a medically induced coma after being brought to a hospital, suffering from smoke inhalation, Sutterley said.
Two police officers were also taken to a hospital as a precaution, but were OK, the prosecutor said.
Coronado was charged with arson of property from another blaze at the same group home in January and arson of a structure causing great bodily injury from the March 31 fire.
Coronado, who faces nine years and eight months in state prison if convicted, was on probation for vandalism where she allegedly set the second fire, Sutterley said.
Defense attorney Michael Dealy told the judge that Coronado has a long history of mental health issues and has been diagnosed with schizophrenia.
–City News Service
