Laurel Co. woman accused of setting her husband on fire
“911? Yes we have an emergency…the woman down the street just set her husband on fire.”
That’s the call the Laurel County 911 center received about 8 p.m. Monday, after police say Vera Roseanne Wooten found her husband in a car with another woman. She yanked him of the car…then took her anger one step further.
“Somehow the man was doused with gasoline, and set on fire,” said Gilbert Acciardo with the Laurel Co. Sheriff’s Office.
After getting yelled out by Wooten, police say the woman (that was in the car with Wooten’s husband) began to leave, but as she was pulling out, she turned around and could see the victim on fire in her rear-view mirror. She was the one who called 911.
“Oh God, he’s absolutely in flames up to his head,” said the caller.
“He still is now?” asked the dispatcher.
“He’s running around. I don’t know if he’s still…he’s still in flames,” she said.
Police say Wooten then drove her own husband, identified as John Wooten, to the London hospital where he was airlifted to Cincinnati’s special burn unit hospital.
“He was burned from his knees to his neck, both front and back. Over 50% of his body,’ said Acciardo.
Wooten has been accused of threatening to harm her husband before. Two years ago in Jackson, in Breathitt County, police say an argument led to gunfire.
“She told us she was cleaning the gun, it accidentally went off,” said Jackson Police Chief Kenneth Spicer in the story that aired in April of 2015.
No one was hurt then, and Wooten was later cleared of the charges when a grand jury did not return an indictment. Now she’s in jail again, though, and her husband is fighting for his life.
“Deputies investigating said he was extremely critical when they transported him,” said Acciardo.
Wooten remains in jail facing assault first, domestic violence charges. She is scheduled to answer to the charges on Wednesday morning in Laurel District Court.