Vera Wooton found guilty of assault for setting husband on fire

A Laurel Circuit Court jury found a Corbin woman guilty of setting her husband on fire in 2017.

The jury convicted Vera Wooton, 42, of one count of first-degree assault and recommended the minimum 10-year prison sentence.

John Wooton suffered burns on more than half of his body from his knees to his neck in the incident on Aug. 7, 2017 outside their home on Paris Karr Road off of West City Dam Road.

According to police, the couple had been arguing outside their residence after Vera Wooton found John Wooton with another woman. Vera Wooton had reportedly found her husband in the car with her.

At some point in the argument, John Wooton was doused with gasoline.

After a verbal confrontation between the women, police say the other woman drove away, but seconds later, she saw John Wooton erupt in flames.

The woman called 911.

“We have an emergency, the woman down the street just set her husband on fire,” the woman told the dispatcher adding seconds later that the flames were reaching his head and that he was running around.

Remnants of John Wooton’s clothing, including his shoes and the smoldering shirt, were left lying outside the trailer that neighbors said the couple was refurbishing.

Laurel County Sheriff’s Deputy Gilbert Acciardo, the department’s public affairs officer, said it was Vera Wooton that drove her husband to Saint Joseph – London Hospital.

He was later admitted to the burn center in Cincinnati, Ohio with injuries that left him in critical condition.

A Laurel County grand jury indicted Vera Wooton later that month.

Vera Wooton is scheduled to return to court at 1 p.m. on September 23 for formal sentencing.