Woman found guilty of ordering Molotov cocktail attack on Bradenton home

A Sarasota woman was found guilty ordering a Molotov cocktail attack on a Bradenton home in 2015, according to federal prosecutors.

Rashica Shaguana Ford, 39, faces beween five and 20 years in federal prison.

Early on the morning of March 11, 2015, Jodarin Marquis Whifield and Herbert Adelphus Pinckney tried to throw a Molotov cocktail through a bedroom window and set fire to the home in the at 800 block of 17th Street East in Bradenton, according to the U.S. attorney's office in Tampa. However, the window did not break.

Ford was Whitfield's girlfriend and Pickney's sister, according to prosecutors, citing trial testimony.

Three adults and five children were inside the home when the fire occurred and all escaped safely. Since the Molotov cocktail did not break the window, only the outside of the home was damaged.

Ford orchestrated the fire bombing as retaliation after an altercation between her and the victim, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.

Ford's sentencing hearing has not yet been set. Ford, Whitfield, of Sarasota, and Pinckney, of Avon Park, were indicted on Nov. 24.

The case was investigated by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the State Bureau of Fire and Arson Investigations, the Bradenton Police Department, the Bradenton Fire Department, the Manatee County Sheriff's Office and the Sarasota County Sheriff's Office. It was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. attorney Carlton C. Gammons.

This story was originally published June 12, 2018 at 11:49 AM with the headline "Woman found guilty of ordering Molotov cocktail attack on Bradenton home."