Two who burned down man’s Horntown home and killed his dog sentenced

By Linda Cicoria

When a local couple burned down a dwelling in July 2019, in Horntown, they not only took away a young man’s home, they also killed his dog.

Thirty-eight-year-old Terrance “Wink” Baines, of Fisher Circle in Melfa, pleaded guilty to misdemeanor arson in Accomack Circuit Court this week. He was ordered to spend a year in jail, the maximum term.

The defendant’s lawyer asked if her client could serve his time on weekends, but that request was denied by Judge W. Revell Lewis III. The judge held up pictures of the charred remains and said “that was someone’s home.”

Meanwhile, 31-year-old Dorothy Payton, of Chester Street in Mappsville, pleaded guilty to felony arson in connection with the incident, misdemeanor threatening to bomb or burn, and driving without a license. Her pleas came in a bargaining agreement with substitute prosecutor Beverly Leatherbury. Payton is free on bond while awaiting sentencing set for Jan. 21, 2021. She could face more than a decade behind bars.

Both will pay a total of $2,375 in restitution for the fire. The victim, 21-year-old Jerry Satchell, had been living in a combination of two campers on Raymond Townsend Lane that was valued at about $900. He lost everything in the blaze, Leatherbury said. She dropped the animal cruelty charges because there was no evidence they knew the dog was inside.

Leatherbury, who is the Commonwealth’s Attorney for Northampton County, said Baines and Payton drove up and down the street making threats against Satchell and his relatives who lived nearby. One witness told authorities that Payton threatened her with a machete that was later found in the truck she drove to bail Baines out of jail.

.