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Sens. Bob Casey and Pat Toomey meet Supreme Court nominee

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Analysis: State Police plan a bargain for municipalities

<p>WILKES-BARRE &#8212; A city man charged with burning down a home where the owner&#8217;s body was later found pleaded guilty Thursday to arson.</p><p>Kyle Robert Shaw, 24, was charged in August with starting the fire that month at the Prospect Street home where he apparently lived with 31-year-old Jack Sipple, who was discovered in a second-floor bedroom with a gunshot to the head. Luzerne County Coroner Bill Lisman said Thursday Sipple&#8217;s manner of death remains undetermined and a ruling was likely &#8220;several weeks&#8221; away.</p><p>A state police fire marshal later determined the fire had been intentionally set.</p><p>According to the affidavit, Shaw was apprehended in Rice Township after officers stopped him driving a red minivan.</p><p>A witness, the affidavit states, told officers responding to the fire they had seen a man with abrasions on his forehead, like those police say Shaw had at the time of his arrest, fleeing the scene, and Shaw allegedly admitted to his girlfriend &#8212; after crashing into her car with the minivan &#8212; that he had started the fire after Sipple committed suicide.</p><p>During an interview at Wilkes-Barre Police Headquarters, Shaw allegedly told police he had been inside the residence when he found his friend dead in the bedroom, but that he couldn&#8217;t remember any other details.</p><p>Judge Joseph Sklarosky Jr. accepted Shaw&#8217;s plea and set sentencing for March 23.</p><p>Shaw was ordered to pay nearly $100,000 in restitution, including $92,400 to Allstate and $1,000 to Sipple&#8217;s wife.</p><style>
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<div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/web1_SHAW-2c-KYLE-cmyk.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Shaw </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/web1_SHAW-2c-KYLE-cmyk.jpg</photo0><caption0>Shaw </caption0><photoCredit0></photoCredit0></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Joe Dolinsky</p><p>jdolinsky@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Joe Dolinsky at 570-991-6110 or on Twitter @JoeDolinskyTL</p></shirttailMeta></div>

Wilkes-Barre man pleads guilty to setting fire where body was found