Guilty plea in 2015 West Dundee home arson
A 28-year-old Elgin man accused of setting fire to a West Dundee home last year has pleaded guilty to a lesser arson charge and will be sentenced in December.
Phokam Prisayana, of the 400 block of Chicago Street, pleaded guilty to felony arson Friday, a crime punishable by probation or up to 15 years in prison, according to Kane County court records.
Prisayana, once declared unfit to stand trial, entered a blind plea in which a defendant does not have a sentence agreed upon beforehand and leaves his fate in the hands of a judge.
The most severe charge against Prisayana - residential arson, a felony punishable by up to 30 years in prison with no chance for probation - still stands in case he backs out on his blind plea.
Prisayana is accused of setting fire the afternoon of Oct. 21, 2015, to a Dundee Township home on the 35W600 block of Tollgate Road, which caused an estimated $300,000 damage. No one was injured in the fire, in which witnesses saw him holding a gas can outside the home shortly before the blaze started, according to a sheriff's report.
Neighbors detained Prisayana - who also was armed with a meat cleaver and screamed at a woman in a foreign language and made a throat-slashing gesture toward her - until authorities arrived, according to the report.
Prisayana was declared unfit for trial last December and treated by the state's Department of Human Services until being restored to fitness in spring 2016, records show. A Laotian interpreter has been used for court proceedings.
A defendant's mental treatment plan and other evaluation reports are sealed under court order.
Prisayana had been held at the Kane County jail on $75,000 bail. His bail was revoked after his guilty plea.