William D. Charleston

Douglas County prosecutors have filed one charge against a 32-year-old Lawrence man currently on parole accusing him of trying to set a North Lawrence mobile home on fire on Saturday while people, including three small children, were inside.

“Thankfully nobody was harmed, but this could have been serious,” assistant district attorney Eve Kemple said during a hearing Monday.

Prosecutors filed one count of aggravated arson against William David Charleston.

Lawrence police said last weekend they arrested Charleston as a suspect Saturday morning for attempting to set fire to the mobile home in the 800 block of Walnut Street.

Sgt. Matt Sarna, a Lawrence police spokesman, said officers were called at 7 a.m. Saturday to the mobile home, and a 24-year-old Lawrence man alleged that the suspect, Charleston, had tried to light his residence on fire. Sarna said Charleston was an acquaintance of the alleged victim.

Officers later found Charleston in the area and arrested him. According to a police report, Charleston was suspected of being under the influence of alcohol. The report also listed $1,000 in damage to the mobile home. Officers located items including burnt strips of wood, a paper match book, burnt cardboard and a lighter in the area.

According to Douglas County Jail records, Charleston also had a Kansas Department of Corrections warrant out for his arrest. According to KDOC records, Charleston has been under supervision since Aug. 4 for a conviction in a 2008 aggravated battery case in Douglas County. He had spent one year in prison.

Kemple said Charleston had extensive criminal history dating back to 1991 when he was a juvenile and that he was also convicted of aggravated escape from custody in 2005 in Johnson County.

Prosecutors called him a flight risk, and asked pro-tem Judge James George to increase his bond from $25,000 to $75,000 on Monday.

Charleston said that because of his KDOC warrant he likely wouldn’t be able to be freed from jail if he posted bond.

“I could care less what you set my bond at,” Charleston told George.