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Judge: Woman’s insanity made her not responsible for fire

Sara Piccolo

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A 20-year-old woman accused of starting a fire in an Omaha college bathroom has been found not responsible by reason of insanity.

Sarah Piccolo had pleaded not guilty to a felony arson charge, accused of setting the Nov. 5 fire at Metropolitan Community College’s Elkhorn campus. After a nonjury trial Tuesday, Judge J. Russell Derr declared Piccolo was not responsible for the blaze and also a danger to herself and others because of mental illness. He ordered her to be evaluated at the state psychiatric hospital in Lincoln.

Piccolo is on five years’ probation because of a Lancaster County conviction. Authorities say she used a hunting knife and a claw hammer to attack a 17-year-old girl at Lincoln Pius X High School in October 2013. The girl was hospitalized.

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