Man gets 35 years after homeless couple killed in arson
KINGSPORT, Tenn. (AP) – A man has been sentenced to 35 years behind bars after he admitted to killing a homeless Kingsport couple by setting a building they were in on fire last year.
The Kingsport Times-News (http://bit.ly/2gNWjPd ) reports 57-year-old Paul Henry Robinson pleaded guilty Wednesday to multiple charges, including two counts of second-degree murder in the deaths of 53-year-old Debra Morrison and 55-year-old Richard Jenkins.
Authorities believe the couple was squatting in the abandoned building in April 2015 when Robinson set it on fire, killing Morrison and Jenkins. It’s unclear whether Robinson knew the two adults were inside at the time.
Robinson had been arrested for beating Morrison shortly before the fatal fire. He had previously been convicted in 1989 of arson and as an accessory after the fact to murder in 1988.
