By Moses Leos III
A Kyle woman was arrested Wednesday after she was suspected of setting her boyfriend’s couch on fire and then trying to escape from custody.
Kyle Police arrested Margaret Anne Welch, 47, of Kyle, was booked into the Hays County Jail on one charge of arson, a state jail felony, and for resisting arrest, a Class A misdemeanor.
According to a Kyle Police arrest affidavit, officers were dispatched to the 100 block of Langley for a Criminal Mischief call.
When an officer arrived, they found Welch in the driveway, where she allegedly appeared intoxicated and smelled of burnt rubber, according to the affidavit. Welch said her boyfriend, who claimed she lit his couch on fire, had kicked her out of her home.
Welch told the officer she and her boyfriend had an argument and she was then forced to sleep on the couch. Welch told police she lit a candle “for her ‘Zen’” and then went to sleep.
When asked by the officer how the fire started, Welch said she lit the candle, fell asleep, then woke up to the fire on the couch. She said she began to scream and woke her boyfriend.
Her boyfriend, however, said he woke up to the sound of his smoke detector going off. When he entered the living room, he found the left side of his couch on fire and Welch standing by the front door, staring at the fire.
After the boyfriend opened the door and moved Welch outside, he put out the fire with a fire extinguisher. He then saw flames and smoke coming from underneath the couch, forcing him to use a blanket to snuff out the flames and discovered it was one of Welch’s flip-flops.
The boyfriend told officers he observed the candle on the coffee table in front of the couch when he emerged from his room.
But when Welch was asked again how the fire started, Welch told the officer she went to the bathroom and then found the fire. After she was reminded she told police that she was asleep, Welched said she went to the bathroom and went back to sleep before finding the fire.
According to the affidavit, Welch said she left the candle on the floor by the couch and her dog must have “wagged” his tail.
After being informed the candle was on the coffee table, Welch said she picked up the burning candle out of the flames on the couch and set it on the table. The officer didn’t find burns on Welch’s hands.
Officers attempted to arrest Welch, who was not “fully cooperative,” according to the affidavit, but complied with attempts to be placed in handcuffs and to sit in the police vehicle.
When the officer returned to investigate, another Kyle Police officer saw Welch moving around the back of the vehicle and had her hands in front of her.
The officer saw Welch had removed the handcuff from her left hand and was trying to remove it from her right. She was removed from the car and re-handcuffed by officers.
Welch was released from the Hays County Jail on $13,000 bond.