WINFIELD TWP — A convicted serial forger stole a cache of guns from a home and later set fire to the house as a ploy to hide the crime, according to state police investigators.

No one was injured but the fire in May badly damaged the house on Keasey Road in Winfield Township where the tenant had recently allowed the suspect to live because she needed a place to stay.

Police on Wednesday charged Donna Mae Ackerson, 43, of Kittanning with torching the house and stealing the firearms, which she allegedly sold to a gun store for a fraction of their worth,

“She stated she needed the money,” Trooper DuWayne Baird, a deputy fire marshal, said of Ackerson’s motive.

But she denied setting the fire.

Ackerson, who has a pages-long criminal record, has been in Armstrong County Jail since June 7 for probation violations.

Baird has methodically built his case, gathering evidence and conducting interviews, since the May 21 fire at 423 Keasey Road.

David Krason, who owns the single-story ranch house, lives across the street and was home about noon when he noticed the flames.

Fire extinguisher in hand, he rushed to put out the blaze but to no avail. He traded the extinguisher for a garden hose. That, too, failed.

Winfield volunteer firefighters were there minutes later and quickly beat down the fire, containing most of the damage to the living room.

Damage was estimated at $40,000. Krason had insurance on the house.

Baird was called in to lead the fire investigation. He learned that Richard Zabicki had been living at the home for more than two years.

However, Zabicki was away at camp in northern Pennsylvania when the blaze struck. Ackerson’s name surfaced in the investigation when Baird spoke to Zabicki.

“I’d called them ‘acquaintances,’” the trooper on Wednesday said of the 44-year-old tenant and defendant.

When Ackerson told Zabicki she was looking for a temporary place to live, he invited her to stay with him at the two-bedroom home, just 2½ weeks before the fire.

“He was being nice,” Baird said of Zabicki’s invitation.

But police believe the house guest betrayed that generosity.

While Ackerson knew Zabicki was at camp for the weekend, she put her criminal scheme on May 21 in motion, Baird said.

She pried opened a gun safe and removed every long gun. She gathered up more guns from Zabicki’s bedroom.

In all, Baird said, she stole nine firearms — rifles and shotguns — and other accessories, including two scopes and a gun stabilizer. The property is worth a combined $5,550.

Police suspect she also swiped a large water jug filled with about $40 in coins.

Zabicki did not have renter’s insurance, authorities said.

According to court documents, Ackerson shortly after 9 a.m. drove to Fenelton Firearms, less than five miles away, and sold five of the guns, both scopes and the stabilizer.

“She told an employee that the guns were her grandfather’s and she inherited them when he died,” Baird said.

She received $400 for the stolen property, which is valued at $2,250. Video footage at the store recorded the transaction, the trooper noted.

The store also made a copy of Ackerson’s driver’s license, which she presented as identification in selling the guns.

Authorities subsequently recovered the guns sold at the store. The other guns have not been found.

Police believe the defendant, after selling the guns, drove back to Zabicki’s rental house. Krason was at his home and noticed the rental Jeep that she was driving parked in the driveway about 10 a.m.

About two hours later, he told Baird, he looked out the front door and noticed smoke coming from the house.

During that two-hour window, police allege Ackerson intentionally set the fire in the living room “by the application of open flame to the available combustible materials,” the criminal complaints reads.

She likely used an accelerant, Baird said, but he declined to elaborate.

By the time Krason spotted the fire, police said, Ackerson was gone, having removed all of her clothing and other personal belongings.

Police eventually found the defendant when they picked her up June 7 for probation violations.

Her criminal record is more than 10 pages long and shows convictions in Armstrong, Cambria and Indiana counties. Most of her convictions are felonies, including 61 for forgery.

Baird said he spoke briefly to Ackerson on Wednesday when she was taken for arraignment on charges in her latest case.

She admitted selling the guns, the trooper said, but claimed she did not know how the fire started.

District Judge Sue Haggerty arraigned the defendant on felony charges of arson, nine counts each of theft, receiving stolen property and felons not to possess firearms, and one count each of risking a catastrophe and criminal mischief.

She also is charged with misdemeanor counts of theft and receiving stolen property.

Ackerson immediately waived all charges to court, giving up her right to a preliminary hearing.

Additionally, in an unrelated case Wednesday, she waived to court a felony theft charge for failing to return a 2015 Hyundai Tucson, valued at $18,000, to a car rental business in Penn Township.

The defendant rented the vehicle May 20 using Zabicki’s name, without his permission, on the rental agreement, state police said.

She also is charged with unauthorized use of a vehicle in that same case.

Ackerson was returned to the Armstrong County Jail following the court proceedings. She is being held on combined $60,0000 bail in the Butler County cases and for the probation violations.