02/25/2014
COUNCIL BLUFFS — A Council Bluffs man who set his home on fire with his mother and 12-year-old brother inside won’t serve prison time.
Jacob Rolfe, 21, pleaded guilty Monday in Pottawattamie County District Court to a charge of second-degree arson, which comes with a deferred judgment and supervised probation. He is now serving a 60-day sentence in the County Jail for two counts of assault related to the incident.
About 1:20 a.m. on Nov. 21, Rolfe poured gasoline in the kitchen of his home at 112 Delong Ave. and set the blaze, all while his mother, Jill Rolfe, 41, and brother, Jordan Rolfe, 12, were inside the house, according to Council Bluffs police and Fire Department reports.
Rolfe told investigators that he set the fire because he “was mad at his mother for being a bad mom” and “wanted her to know what it felt like to not have anything.”
At an earlier court date, Rolfe pleaded guilty to the assault counts and requested a deferred judgment on the arson charge. Pottawattamie County Chief Deputy Attorney Jon Jacobmeier said the prosecution didn’t fight the request because Jill Rolfe had requested that the charges be dropped.
“Sometimes relatives’ wishes are not what’s best for the defendant,” Jacobmeier said. “Sometimes parents become an enabler and the defendant gets worse. She wanted the charges dropped — that’s not going to happen.”
Jacobmeier said that if Jacob Rolfe doesn’t meet the terms of his probation, he faces incarceration.
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