May 17-- ACCOMAC -- Tonya S. Bundick is scheduled to go to trial July 14 in Virginia Beach on one of the felony arson counts against her -- the first of many trials to come.
A judge last month ruled Bundick can have 62 trials on her remaining 62 arson charges stemming from a months long series of Eastern Shore fires. She was arraigned on those cases Friday in Accomack County Circuit Court.
At a January trial in Virginia Beach, moved there over concerns about finding impartial juries, Bundick entered an Alford plea to arson and conspiracy in an April 2013 fire in Melfa. The plea means she admitted there was enough evidence to convict her but didn't admit guilt.
Her next trial deals with a March 3, 2013, fire in Accomack County.
Bundick has denied involvement in or knowledge of the more than 70 fires in unoccupied and abandoned buildings set in the county from November 2012 through April 2013. Her fiance, Charles R. Smith III, has testified she was part of the spree.
He pleaded guilty in October to 67 counts of arson and one count of conspiracy to commit arson and is awaiting sentencing.
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