> ## Woman pleads guilty to arson

> By Jon Burstein
> Staff Writer
> Posted March 15 2003

> A woman who claimed voices in her stomach commanded her to set fires pleaded guilty Thursday to three arson charges for torching buildings in a West Palm Beach neighborhood.
> Christeen Grace, a diagnosed paranoid schizophrenic, will spend 10 years on probation and live in a mental-health treatment facility, Palm Beach County Circuit Judge Richard Wennet ordered. If the facility's mental-health experts ever decide she's competent to live on her own, she must continue outpatient treatment, the judge ordered.
> Grace's plea deal came about after doctors recently deemed her competent to stand trial for fires that plagued neighborhoods northwest of Clematis Street for most of 2000. She faced four counts of arson and one of attempted arson for blazes she admitted starting. West Palm Beach police have said they suspect she is responsible for up to 17 fires.
> Most of the fires were started in or outside abandoned buildings. No one was hurt in the blazes.
> Grace, 40, had been declared incompetent to stand trial in January 2002 and was committed to a mental-health center run by the Department of Children & Families. When she was re-evaluated earlier this year, mental-health experts concluded she was fit to stand trial.
> Shortly after her October arrest, Grace told police that "root people" living in her stomach commanded her to start fires.
> In addition to schizophrenia, Grace suffers from epilepsy, pyromania and visual and auditory hallucinations, according to doctors.
> Jon Burstein can be reached at jburstein@sun-sentinel.com or 561-832-2895.

> Copyright © 2003, South Florida Sun-Sentinel