A mentally ill Little Rock woman has been cleared of criminal wrongdoing for setting a fire in the lobby of a city library branch last year.
Kisha Michelle Ilo, 38, has struggled with her illness for about 16 years and was enrolled in a monitoring program for people with mental illness who have committed crimes when she set the October fire in the lobby of the Sidney McMath Library.
Ilo, formerly of Redfield, was first placed in the program after being arrested in March 2012 for hitting another woman with a car because she thought the woman, a stranger to her, had made a threatening remark about her family.
In June 2013, Ilo was adjudicated innocent by reason of mental disease of charges of second-degree battery and leaving the scene of an injury-causing accident.
She was released from custody on a treatment plan to live with her mother in July 2013 and placed in the monitoring program. Court records show that her monitors never found cause to revoke her release until after the library fire.
She was charged with arson and five counts of aggravated assault after police said library security cameras recorded her igniting flammable liquid that she had poured on furniture and a wall at the John Barrow Road branch. Each of the assault charges represents a library employee in the building.
Court filings show Circuit Judge Barry Sims found Ilo innocent by reason of mental disease on Monday after the prosecution and defense agreed she has mental illness.
She will remain in custody at the State Hospital until doctors work out a treatment plan for her, then convince another judge that she can follow it without being a danger to herself or others, court files show.
Ilo was diagnosed by state doctors with schizoaffective disorder that prevented her at the time of the fire from realizing what she was doing was wrong and kept her from being able to control herself, court filings show. Schizoaffective disorder also was her diagnosis in the 2012 battery case.
According to her mental evaluation, Ilo described for doctors an "elaborate delusion" that extended over several months that she believed led her to start the fire. The report states that she thought the actor Will Smith had ordered an acquaintance named Will Smith to kill her.
Ilo stated she remembered purchasing gasoline that morning, telling State Hospital psychologist Mary Eagle, "I brought the gas in because the last time I was in there I felt threatened."
Ilo said she was scared when she entered the library and felt that Smith was following her. She said she got mad when she thought she heard the librarian laughing about her fear of Smith, the report states.
"Ms. Ilo indicated she was not trying to hurt Will Smith, but rather had the sole intention of protecting herself before he hurt her," Eagle wrote in a report to the court.
"Ms. Ilo initially indicated she has no recollection of setting the library lobby on fire but reported later in the evaluation that she decided to set the library on fire after hearing the librarian 'laughing' at her while the librarian was on the phone with the fire department."
Court records show Ilo has been hospitalized for mental illness seven times between 2005 and 2013, including three times at the State Hospital and three times at Baptist Health Medical Center and also has a "long history" of not taking her medications.
According to court records, Ilo has bachelor's and master's degrees in business administration and had worked in computer science and accounting in California before her illness manifested sometime around 2000.
Metro on 04/08/2016