Cinamon Charmaine Rigmaiden (DPD) and the home she allegedly lit on fire, killing her ex-boyfriend’s mother (WJBK/YouTube screenshot)
A 31-year-old woman in Michigan is facing multiple felonies after she allegedly set her ex-boyfriend’s home on fire last week, killing his disabled mother and injuring his uncle and the uncle’s fiance. The ex-boyfriend was not in the residence at the time of the fire.
Cinamon Charmaine Rigmaiden was taken into custody on Tuesday and charged with one count each of murder, assault with intent to murder, and arson in the fire that killed 53-year-old Tina Dorrough, authorities announced.
According to a news release from the Wayne County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office, Rigmaiden at about 11:17 p.m. on Monday, June 3, went to Dorrough’s home where she “poured an accelerant on the front porch of the victims’ home located in the 6000 block of Seminole Street in Detroit.” She then allegedly set the home on fire and fled the scene.
“Members of the Detroit Fire Department and the Hamtramck Fire Department responded to the scene and extinguished the fire,” the release states. “Medics arrived on the scene and pronounced Ms. Dorrough deceased. The two surviving victims were transported to a local hospital for treatment.”
The surviving victims were a 57-year-old man and a 65-year-old woman, police said.
Prosecutors were appalled by the nature of the alleged crime.
“Since when is the solution in the breakup of a relationship setting fire to an occupied house?” Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy said in a statement. “The alleged actions of the defendants in this case are beyond reprehensible. As a result, there were three innocent victims. A woman has died and two people were seriously injured.”
During Rigmaiden’s bond hearing, prosecutors continued to excoriate the defendant.
“She wanted to make her ex-boyfriend ‘feel her pain,’ which she was able to do,” Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Teana Livingston told the court, the Lexington Herald-Leader reported.
On the night of the fire, Rigmaiden reportedly used 75 cents worth of gas to douse a couch on Dorrough’s porch that she then lit on fire. After lighting the blaze, Rigmaiden retreated to her car and sent a text message to her ex-boyfriend that read, “Your house is on fire.”
Prosecutors reportedly said that the uncle’s fiance was only able to escape the fire by leaping from a second-story window, leaving the uncle and Dorrough inside.
“The uncle had to flee the home to not suffer anymore smoke inhalation, but not before he had to make the decision to leave his paralyzed sister in the home,” Livingston said. “(Rigmaiden) then left the location and went to McDonald’s and then it’s alleged that she, per her own words, purchased cocaine.”
Rigmaiden’s defense attorney argued that she was only starting the fire in an attempt to damage property and believed the house was empty when she started the fire. Prosecutors pushed back on that claim, alleging that she knew her ex’s disabled mother was inside of the residence.
A judge ordered that Rigmaiden be held without bond.
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