Lake Berryessa Arson Sentence: 6 Months Jail, 4 Years Probation

NAPA, CA – A Napa woman was sentenced Wednesday to four years probation and 180 days in the county jail for setting three wildland fires near the north end of Lake Berryessa between October 2015 and August 2017.

Debra Ann Windholz, 61, pleaded no contest in August to three felony counts of arson of forestland. The three offenses will count as strikes and be on her permanent record, the Napa County District Attorney's Office said.

Under a plea agreement, Windholz will be required to register as an arson offender, prosecutors said.

She was arrested on Dec. 6, 2017, and later was charged with setting 11 fires in the Berryessa Knoxville Road area between Oct. 30, 2015, and Aug. 10, 2017.

The arson charges were not connected to the wildfires in Sonoma and Napa counties in October 2017.

Windholz's attorney Jeffrey Hammond would not comment on the disposition of the case or why his client set the fires.

"She's just glad it's over," Hammond said Wednesday afternoon.

Windholz must turn herself in to the Napa County jail by Jan. 14. She will serve 90 days of the 180-day sentence, Hammond said.

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