Former Norfolk teacher pleads guilty to arson for 2021 blaze
Fire burned West Ghent neighbor’s home and car
A former Norfolk middle school teacher pleaded guilty Thursday to starting a fire last summer that caused significant damage to a West Ghent house and two cars parked in the driveway next to it.
Ryan Lee Elza, 43, pleaded guilty to arson of an occupied dwelling and felony destruction of property in Norfolk Circuit Court, according to a plea agreement entered in the case.
Sentencing was scheduled for Dec. 2. The arson charge carries a maximum penalty of life imprisonment and the destruction of property count is punishable by up to five years.
The two-story home damaged in the fire is located in the 800 block of Claremont Avenue. The owners, Patrick and Tiffany McGee, and their two children were inside when the blaze was set June 11, 2021, but were able to escape unharmed. They said the fire started with their cars and then spread to the house.
Elza was living in a nearby apartment building at the time.
The blaze was one of multiple suspicious fires that occurred in the area over a 16-month period. Three of them happened during a three-month span in 2020 at a building next to the one where Elza lived. Two were at the building, and the other involved an automobile next to it.
Elza was arrested last July, about three weeks after the house was burned. He was employed as an English teacher at Lake Taylor Middle School at the time.
Court records show Elza was evaluated last year to determine if he was competent to stand trial, and then was examined again earlier this year to decide whether he was not guilty by reason of insanity. Both evaluations determined he was fit to stand trial.