GREEN BAY – After four years of court proceedings, a Green Bay woman who started a fire at age 15 that killed her infant nephew will serve no time in prison.
In court Friday morning, family members of the 11-month-old baby who died in June 2019 expressed dissatisfaction with the case’s resolution, holding up signs and wearing T-shirts labeled “Justice for Baby Ricky.”
Marcelia Fonseca, now 20, pleaded no contest Friday morning in Brown County Circuit Court to one count of homicide by negligent use of fire. A plea bargain amended the charge from first-degree intentional homicide, and dismissed a second charge of arson.
On June 7, 2019, Fonseca started a fire in the house she lived in with family in the 2500 block of Wisconsin Avenue in Green Bay.
Investigators said the contents of a metal wire laundry cart near the baby’s playpen on the second floor of the home had been intentionally set on fire. Firefighters recovered the infant from the flames, but he died of his injuries, which included burns on his entire body ranging from first-degree to third-degree, according to a criminal complaint.