{"id":1048,"date":"2026-06-02T18:39:38","date_gmt":"2026-06-02T18:39:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=1048"},"modified":"2026-06-02T18:39:38","modified_gmt":"2026-06-02T18:39:38","slug":"union-city-man-sentenced-to-time-he-already-served-in-deadly-house-fire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=1048","title":{"rendered":"Union City man sentenced to time he already served in deadly house fire"},"content":{"rendered":"
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DUBLIN \u2014 A man who burnt down his Union City home by playing with a lighter while high on methamphetamine has accepted a plea deal and been sentenced to two years in prison, with one major caveat \u2014 he has already served the time.<\/p>\n

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Christopher Schwenk, 34, pleaded no contest to involuntary manslaughter in the Sept. 23, 2024 house fire that killed 66-year-old Ronald Myers, an occupant of the home. He was formally sentenced and released from jail in mid-May.<\/p>\n

Court records say the occupants \u2014 including Schwenk, Myers, Myers\u2019 fiancee, and Schwenk\u2019s mom \u2014 all escaped the blaze safely. But Myers went back into the burning home to get his wallet, and suffered an \u201cinhalation injury\u201d that led to his death at a hospital nearly six hours later.<\/p>\n

Police and fire crews were called to a home on the 33400 block of 14th Street in Union City for a report of a fire, when Schwenk\u2019s mom called 911 a little after 3 a.m.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy son was playing with his lighter thingy and I told him to stop it,\u201d Schwenk\u2019s mother allegedly told the 911 operator. She later told police that her son had been using methamphetamine and making her nervous by messing with lighters in the home. The two were arguing when police arrived, authorities said.<\/p>\n

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Deputy Public Defender Daniel Duvernay, who represented Schwenk, wrote in a court memorandum that Schwenk accidentally lit his own jacket on fire and wasn\u2019t able to extinguish the blaze.<\/p>\n

Schwenk was charged in January 2025. Much of the court process was dedicated to helping him get sober. In May 2025 he was released from jail on GPS monitoring to a drug rehabilitation center, but absconded three months later after telling a counselor he didn\u2019t want to get clean, according to court records. He was subsequently arrested and remained jailed until the case was finished.<\/p>\n

Though Schwenk spent roughly 383 days in custody, he was given double credit for time served due to good behavior, court records show.<\/p>\n

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Schwenk\u2019s criminal history includes a time where he beat murder charges. In 2019 prosecutors accused him of killing his dad, Troy Schwenk, but the case was later dismissed, according to media reports and court records.<\/p>\n

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The defendant started the fire by playing with a “lighter thingy,” but the victim was killed only after he went back into the burning home to get his wallet.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1047,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1048","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nUnion City man sentenced to time he already served in deadly house fire - Next City Digest<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=1048\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Union City man sentenced to time he already served in deadly house fire - 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