Man Torches Mother's House, Then Sets A Woman On Fire An Hour Later: 43 Years
Venice Taylor forced his way into his mother's Kinston, North Carolina, house and tried to set it on fire. About an hour later, police say, he poured a flammable liquid on 24-year-old Khloe McNeal as she sat in her car and set her ablaze. He's now facing up to 43 years.
Case at a glance
- Venice Taylor — defendant, pleaded guilty to attempted first-degree murder and burning personal property, sentenced
- Khloe McNeal — 24-year-old woman set on fire on East Street in Kinston, victim
Next: Taylor's case is closed on the court record: he has pleaded guilty and been sentenced to 34 to 43 years, and the coverage reports no appeal and no further hearing date. One loose thread remains — the Kinston Police Department has not said publicly whether the attempted arson at Taylor's mother's house was ever formally charged or folded into Monday's plea, and no outlet has pressed the department to clarify it.
Two fires, one hour, same morning
The morning of Feb. 3, 2020, started with two fires in Kinston, North Carolina, set roughly an hour apart by the same man.
Around 10 a.m., according to Kinston police, someone forced entry into a house at 1802 Elizabeth Drive while the residents were away and attempted to set the interior on fire. The fire was small and extinguished itself before anyone returned home. Investigators identified Venice Taylor as a suspect and said he was known to the people who lived there — the home belonged to his mother.
About an hour later, at 10:52 a.m., an officer on patrol was flagged down by a passerby near the intersection of Bright and East streets. The officer found a 24-year-old woman, Khloe McNeal, on the sidewalk with severe burns.
Investigators determined McNeal had been in her vehicle, stopped on East Street, when a man drove up, poured a flammable liquid on her and set her on fire. Kinston Fire and Rescue and Lenoir County EMS responded to treat her at the scene.
McNeal was taken first to UNC Lenoir, then flown to the North Carolina Jaycee Burn Center in Chapel Hill, where she spent roughly 10 months recovering from severe burns to her upper body.
Kinston police arrested Taylor — then 41 and living in Jacksonville, North Carolina — that same evening at 7:08 p.m., during a traffic stop in the 300 block of East Vernon Avenue.
Who's at the center of this case
Venice Taylor is the man who pleaded guilty. He was 41 and living in Jacksonville at the time of the attack; outlets describe him as 48 at sentencing, nearly seven years later.
Khloe McNeal is the woman he set on fire. She was 24 at the time, stopped in her car on East Street in Kinston when Taylor approached her. None of the coverage describes a prior relationship between the two — investigators have only said Taylor was known to the people in the arson at his mother's house, not to McNeal.
Judge Somers presided over Taylor's guilty plea and sentencing in Lenoir County court on Monday, Nov. 9, 2026, according to WCTI.
"While no sentence can erase what happened, we sincerely hope this resolution allows another chapter of healing to begin." — Kinston Police Department, according to WCTI
What he pleaded guilty to, and what it means
At the time of his 2020 arrest, Kinston police said they were seeking several charges against Taylor, including attempted murder and malicious maiming.
Nearly seven years later, on Nov. 9, 2026, Taylor pleaded guilty to attempted first-degree murder, burning personal property, and having habitual felon status, according to WITN. Habitual felon status isn't a separate crime from that day — it's a sentencing enhancement under North Carolina law that tells the court Taylor has enough prior felony convictions to qualify for a longer sentence on the charges in front of it.
As part of the plea agreement, prosecutors dropped the charge of assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill — inflicting serious injury, along with several other charges that outlets did not name.
The judge sentenced Taylor to 34 to 43 years in prison. In practice, that range means Taylor cannot be considered for release until he has served at least 34 years, and the state can hold him for as long as 43 before he must be released.
One thing the record doesn't settle: whether the attempted arson at his mother's house was itself part of what he pleaded to. WCTI reported that the police department's release did not specify whether that investigation was included in Taylor's guilty plea or sentencing.
What police said after sentencing
After Monday's sentencing, the Kinston Police Department publicly thanked the Lenoir County District Attorney's Office and Judge Somers for their work on the case, according to WCTI.
The department also addressed McNeal directly. "From all of us at the Kinston Police Department, we hope today's outcome provides some measure of peace," the department said, according to WCTI. "While no sentence can erase what happened, we sincerely hope this resolution allows another chapter of healing to begin."
Police added that their thoughts and best wishes remain with McNeal and her family. No other party — not Taylor, not a defense attorney, not McNeal herself — is quoted in the coverage reviewed for this story.
What happens next
Taylor's case is closed on the court record: he has pleaded guilty and been sentenced to 34 to 43 years, and the coverage reports no appeal and no further hearing date. One loose thread remains — the Kinston Police Department has not said publicly whether the attempted arson at Taylor's mother's house was ever formally charged or folded into Monday's plea, and no outlet has pressed the department to clarify it.
How this plays in court
A prosecutor looks at this timeline and sees intent laid out minute by minute: a forced entry and an attempted house fire around 10 a.m., then a stranger set on fire in the street less than an hour later. That sequence is exactly the kind of evidence that turns a hard-to-prove attempted-murder charge into a strong one — it shows a state of mind, not an accident.
Dropping the assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill — inflicting serious injury charge while keeping attempted first-degree murder tells you prosecutors didn't need every count stacked to land the sentence they wanted. Habitual felon status did the heavy lifting — it's what let the court reach into the 34-to-43-year range instead of a standard first-time sentencing bracket.
A defense attorney in this spot has very little room to work with once a guilty plea is entered — the real negotiation happens before the plea, over which charges get dropped and what number the state will agree to recommend. Certainty of a multi-decade sentence, in exchange for not litigating every count at trial, is almost certainly what produced this outcome.
The open question police left on the table — whether the attempted arson at the mother's house was separately charged — matters less for how long Taylor serves than for the public record of what he was actually held accountable for. If it was never prosecuted on its own, that fire stays, for now, a fact in the narrative rather than a conviction in its own right.
- WRAL: Man Torches Mother's House, Then Sets A Woman On Fire An Hour Later: 43 Years
- WRAL: Man pleads guilty for setting Kinston woman on fire in 2020; sentenced up to 43 years
- WCTI: Man sentenced to 34-43 years for setting woman on fire in Kinston in 2020
- WITN: Man pleads guilty to setting Kinston woman on fire in 2020
- Neuse News: Kinston man sentenced to up to 43 years for setting woman on fire in 2020