MILWAUKEE COUNTY

Milwaukee woman set deadly house fire to get boyfriend out of house, charge says

Haley Hansen
Milwaukee

A Milwaukee woman accused of starting a house fire that killed a man last week told police she did it to get the man she was dating out of the house so she could continue to fight with him, according to a criminal complaint filed Wednesday. 

Java Wright

Java Wright, 39, was charged with first-degree reckless homicide and building arson in connection with setting the fire that killed Willie O. Greer, 72, on June 16. 

According to the criminal complaint:

The Milwaukee Fire Department was sent to a fire at 1204 W. Wright St. about 7:45 p.m. A firefighter went into the burning house and carried Greer's body out the back door. Greer was pronounced dead at the scene.  

Cellphone video posted to social media shows a woman, later identified as Wright, smashing windows of the lower unit of the house from the outside. The woman then pours contents of a red gas can through the windows, reaches in and appears to light the fire. 

Officers talked with a woman who said she was Wright's sister-in-law. The woman said she saw the video and thought she recognized Wright. Wright called her sister-in-law shortly after the fire and told her she set the house on fire. 

The day after the fire, officers were patrolling the area when a man approached them and said the person who set the fire the day before was nearby. The officers went to a house in the area. Wright was outside. When the officers approached her, she said, "I'm the one that did it." 

Wright said she was dating a man who lived at the house on W. Wright St. and that the two frequently fight. She said the two were fighting on June 16 and the man shut her out of the house. Wright peeked through a hole in the front door, and the man shoved something through and poked her eye, which angered her. 

She then got a hammer and a crate from the detached garage and set the crate under a window. She poured gasoline on the house's curtains and lighted the fire with a cigarette lighter. She walked around the other side of the house and spread more gasoline inside. 

Wright said she didn't want to harm Greer and that she only wanted to get back at her boyfriend and wanted him to get out of the house so they could keep fighting.

If convicted, Wright could face up to 60 years in prison for the homicide charge and up to 40 years for the arson charge, which also could warrant a fine of up to $100,000.