BALTIMORE (WBFF) — After five days of unsuccessful jury deliberation, a Baltimore City Circuit judge declared a mistrial in the case for a Baltimore man charged with arson and involuntary manslaughter in a 2022 rowhouse fire that killed three firefighters and seriously injured three others.
James Edwin Barnett, 58, was charged with second-degree arson, involuntary manslaughter and reckless endangerment after investigators said he started a blaze in a vacant rowhouse on Stricker Street in the Mount Clare neighborhood in Central Southwest Baltimore in January 2022.
The fire, which caused the building to collapse, killed Baltimore Fire Lt. Paul Butrim, Lt. Kelsey Sadler and EMT/firefighter Kenny Lacayo.
Barnett had also faced three second-degree murder charges, but they were dismissed Tuesday after Baltimore Circuit Judge Alan Lazerow determined that the state hadn’t satisfied the burden of establishing that the deaths of the firefighters were “reasonably likely or certain outcomes” of Barnett’s alleged conduct.
Read the full story on The Baltimore Sun.
This post was originally published on Fox 45 by Sinclair Media Group.
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