Police charge man with homicide
By Brett Hambright
Intelligencer Journal (Lancaster, Pennsylvania)
Copyright 2006 Lancaster Newspapers, Inc.
Minutes after Angela Readance was severely burned last month in a fire at her Lancaster city apartment, she relayed a message to a paramedic caring for her in the back of an ambulance.
“My boyfriend did this to me,” she told the medic, according to court documents. “He dumped gas on me and lit me on fire.”
On Nov. 25, Readance, 29, died at a Delaware County hospital, eight days after sustaining burns that covered more than 90 percent of her body, according to court documents.
During the ambulance ride to Lancaster General Hospital, she told another medic: “John Graves did it. That’s what you’re gonna need to know - that he did it,” according to documents.
John W. Graves Jr., 38, who shared an apartment with Readance at 35 N. Mulberry St., was arrested in Philadelphia Nov. 18 and chargcd with arson.
Authorities charged him Wednesday with criminal homicide.
He was arraigned and denied bail by District Judge Bruce Roth Wednesday morning.
According to an arrest affidavit, Graves set fire to Readance’s person and the couple’s first-floor apartment Nov. 17 about 6:30 p.m.
A witness later told Lancaster city Detective Nate Nickel she saw a black male - later identified as Graves - run from the burning apartment building.
Shortly after Graves fled the apartment, Readance exited the building, the witness said. Readance was disoriented and was wearing only a black bra, the witness told police.
Officer Mark Radmore was the first officer to arrive, according to the affidavit.
As Radmore walked down an alley behind the apartment building, he noticed Readance was “severely burned over her entire body,” the affidavit says.
A LEMSA ambulance took Readance to Lancaster General. As the ambulance got closer to the hospital, Readance spoke of her assailant, according to the affidavit.
“My boyfriend did this to me,” she told one medic. “He poured gasoline over me and set me on fire.”
She later told the medic, “I’m going to die,” according to the affidavit.
Readance was flown to Crozer-Chester Medical Center, where she died the morning of Nov. 25.
An autopsy at Delaware County Medical Examiner’s Office determined the cause of death as “complications of soot and smoke inhalation and extensive thermal injures.”
The manner of death was ruled homicide.
According to newspaper records, Readance was born in Altoona. She had a husband, son and daughter, all of whom live in Texas.