CENTRALIA — A 32-year-old Centralia woman filed an open plea of guilty Thursday in Marion County court to one of two counts charging her with firing a gun into her neighbor’s apartment.

Dominika Belt
(Source: MCSO)

Dominika Belt was charged with two counts Class 1 felony aggravated discharge of a firearm into an occupied building.

She pleaded guilty Thursday to Count 2 in exchange for County 1 being dismissed.

An open plea of guilty is not an admission of guilt but an acknowledgement that the prosecution had evidence that if provided to a jury would likely result in a guilty verdict.

According to Centralia Police Chief Brian Atchison, officers responded in May to a 911 call from an occupant of a Maulding Drive duplex saying their neighbor was outside shooting into their home.

The female caller and a male resident of the home had reportedly been involved in a verbal altercation with Belt earlier in the morning and had gone inside when two rounds were fired through their windows. Those rounds struck interior walls, while a third shot struck the brick exterior of the home.

Officers reportedly recovered two firearms, one believed to have been used in the incident. No injuries were reported.

Belt was taken into custody without incident.

Atchison explained that the Marion County Housing Authority maintains surveillance cameras at the housing complex on Maulding, so dispatchers at CPD were able to maneuver the cameras and track the subject’s movements.

Belt is scheduled to be sentenced in the case on October 8. A Class 1 felony is punishable by between 4 and 15 years in prison.