Bivens
Photo courtesy of Allen County Sheriff’s Office
LIMA — With potential jurors already assembled Monday morning in the halls of the Allen County Justice Center, a Lima man charged with setting his same-sex domestic partner on fire accepted a last-minute plea offer from prosecutors.
Darrell Bivens, 53, agreed to plead guilty to a first-degree felony count of aggravated arson. In return for that plea prosecutors dismissed a second-degree felony count of felonious assault.
Bivens was indicted by a grand jury in December following a domestic dispute which left another man in the burn unit of a Toledo hospital.
According to court documents, Lima police received a call in the early morning hours of Oct. 21 from Steven McKean saying his live-in boyfriend, Bivens, had poured alcohol on him and lit him on fire. Officers arrived at a residence in the 700 block of North Main Street in Lima to find McKean with burns on his torso, left arm and the top of his head.
McKean told officers he assaulted Bivens in an attempt to prevent his attacker from lighting his shirt on fire. After the first attempt to ignite the alcohol failed, Bivens reportedly succeeded in lighting McKean’s shirt on fire. When the flames became too high to extinguish McKean removed his shirt, court records show.
McKean didn’t seek medical attention until the following afternoon and was subsequently referred to a burn unit at Mercy Health Hospital in Toledo.
During an interview with Detective Steve Stechschulte of the Lima Police Department, Bivens initially denied lighting his partner on fire. Bivens later changed his story and claimed McKean was the initial aggressor and that he (Bivens) poured rubbing alcohol on McKean and lit him on fire to protect himself.
Bivens will be sentenced July 20, following the completion of a pre-sentence report.
