| By Big Radio News Staff |

A Janesville man receives a $25,000 cash bond in an arson case.

Matthew Kitsembel, 36, is accused of igniting a fire in an apartment on South Jackson Street in Janesville on Aug. 31.

The criminal complaint says Kitsembel crafted a Molotov cocktail from an empty Bud Light bottle and a tampon, lit it with a lighter he borrowed from the unwitting landlord who was sitting outside and tossed it through the apartment’s bathroom window. His girlfriend and her stepchild were occupying the room at the time.

One witness said Kitsembel and his girlfriend fought frequently and that Kitsembel thought his girlfriend was in the bathroom with another man the morning of the incident.

Responding officers smelled smoke and gasoline in the apartment, and the bathroom door and blinds were scorched and melted.

Charges against him include arson of a building, first-degree recklessly endangering safety and sell/manufacture/possess Molotov cocktails, all as a repeater because of his previous armed robbery conviction. Kitsembel was on extended supervision after a prison term for a 2018 armed robbery in Rock County. He will be back in court Oct. 2.