Gloria Lee ordered to serve 5 to 14 years in pet shop arson, tells judge she’s pregnant

Gloria Lee thought she unplugged the video surveillance system before she helped set fire to the Prince and Princess Pet Boutique fire with 27 dogs inside, prosecutors said Wednesday, but she actually disconnected an Internet cord.

Authorities watched the recording that showed Lee letting Kirk Bills into the shop, where he tried to start a fire using kerosene splashed onto the puppy cages.

She had been sleeping with Bills at the time, prosecutors said. She then tried to frame her husband, who wasn’t named in court, for the Jan. 2014 blaze and file a $100,000 insurance claim.

On Wednesday, in an apparent attempt to persuade a judge to give her probation, Lee said she was three months pregnant with her husband’s child.

That didn’t work either.

“My impressions are that from the beginning of this effort you attempted to manipulate your way through the process,” Chief Judge David Barker said, ordering Lee to serve five to 14 years in prison.

Lee pleaded guilty in October to arson, insurance fraud and cruelty to animal charges.

Since then, she reconciled with her husband and became pregnant, she said.

Prosecutor Shanon Clowers said Lee was trying to use the pregnancy to avoid prison.

“I’ve heard of the oopsie baby, but I’ve never heard of the get-out-of-jail-free baby,” Clowers said, adding that Lee was “misappropriating her reproductive system as a get-out-of-jail-free card.”

The Nevada prison system is equipped to handle births, which are not uncommon behind bars, the prosecutor said.

“It’s just another manipulative tactic,” Clowers said. “Just as I believe she manipulated her co-defendant into helping her start this fire.”

The prosecutor said later that she had not seen any paperwork to confirm the pregnancy, but Lee had informed officers who conducted what’s known as a pre-sentence investigation.

Lee and Bills were originally charged with 27 counts of attempted animal cruelty along with burglary and arson in connection with the Jan. 27, 2014, fire.

“It’s not lost on the state that these are not children,” Clowers said. “We’re talking about dogs. I’m not going to prance around with pictures of cute little puppies in order to garner sympathy. … But at the same time, we’re talking about living beings, and it’s a very horrific crime when you try to murder them by fire.”

In the animal cruelty charge, Lee admitted that she tried to “torture or unjustifiably maim, mutilate or kill” each of the puppies in the pet shop at the time of the fire. None of the puppies were hurt.

“Two months after you’re pleading guilty, looking at substantial penalties, you find yourself blessed with a child,” Barker told Lee. “Do you understand how that might appear to me as a sentencing judge trying to balance the aggravating and mitigating factors and coming up with a fair sentence? That it may appear to me as if you’re trying to manipulate this process?”

She said she had tried to get pregnant in the past, but never carried a baby three months.

“I just know that it was meant to be,” Lee said. “I want to be a mother to this child, and I want to be there for my husband.”

She told the judge: “I am very sorry for what I did. I know that what I did was wrong.”

Her lawyer, Ozzie Fumo, asked Barker to suspend a prison term and offer Lee a chance at probation.

At the time of the fire, Fumo said, Lee felt Bills threatened her life and she had no choice. She called the insurance company because an investigator told her to do that, he said.

“Thank goodness none of us are defined by the worst thing we ever did in our lives,” Fumo said.

Bills, who also pleaded guilty in the case, is slated to be sentenced next week.

The case drew national media attention after videos of the fire and the puppies were released. Animal rights activists protested outside the courthouse, demanding harsh penalties for the defendants.

The county took charge of the 27 dogs, which included 25 puppies, and the Animal Foundation adopted out the young dogs via the Arson Puppy Adoption Drawing, which sold $250 raffle tickets.

Gina Greisen, president of Nevada Voters for Animals, has attended all of Lee’s court appearances along with other animal rights activists.

“I think it added insult to injury that she did not take responsibility — even now after a year for what she has done,” Greisen said. “And the fact that she would try to get pregnant and try to manipulate the system that way is to me even worse than trying to kill the puppies. To now take a human life and throw it in the mix when she knew she was facing so many years in prison is beyond sad. I’m glad the judge saw through that.”

Contact reporter David Ferrara at dferrara@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-1039. Find him on Twitter: @randompoker