Jury selection for for 58-year-old defendant James Edwin Barnett, accused in a deadly arson blaze, began on Oct. 2 before Baltimore City Circuit Judge Alan Lazerow.
Three Baltimore firefighters died trying to put out the flames.
Barnett is being charged with second-degree arson, three counts of second-degree murder, three counts of involuntary manslaughter and five counts of reckless endangerment.
According to charging documents, on January 24, 2022, at approximately 6 a.m, callers reported a building on fire at 205 S. Stricker Street, with occupants trapped inside including children.
Moments later scores of Baltimore firefighters began arriving at the structure, a three-story row home, fully engulfed in flames threatening adjacent residences.
During the attempt to rescue the residents and extinguish the blaze, the building collapsed from the roof down, trapping six firefighters inside the building. In the aftermath, firefighters Lieutenant Paul Butrim, Firefighter Kelsey Lacayo, and Lieutenant Kelsey Sadler died and another firefighter critically injured.
Even as firefighting efforts were underway investigators from multiple federal, state and local agencies converged on the scene, including the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF).
A review of surveillance footage showed an individual, allegedly identified through the course of the investigation as the defendant, entering the rear door of building about 1 a.m the day of the incident.
The footage allegedly depicts several flashes of light inside the first floor of the structure, then captures the departing supsect.
Almost immediately, surveillance video reveals the blaze had spread to several nearby structures. Before the fires were extinguished, multiple fire departments rushed to the conflagration from nearby counties.
Investigators processed the scene for approximately eight days, utilizing a myriad of investigative techniques, including accelerant detection dogs and light source analysis testing.
Based on this analysis, investigators concluded that the point of origin of the fire was in the exact same spot as where the four flashes of light were seen during the defendant’s presence in the structure.
Thus the ATF was able to conclude the origin and proximal cause of the fire was a butane lighter.
On February 24, 2022, investigators using BPD’s CitiWatch camera system were able to locate and observe the defendant identified as Barnett in the Carrollton Ridge neighborhood.
The next day Barnett was allegedly observed wearing the same white and gray Nike athletic shoes observed in the surveillance footage from the night of the incident.
He allegedly admitted he was familiar with the Stricker Street property and that he’d lived in it several years prior before being kicked out of the building.
Investigators says Barnett was the source of the light flashes in the doomed Stricker Street Structure.
Based on a high-tech analysis of the surveillance footage, Barnett was identified as the alleged source of the light flashes in the doomed Stricker Street Structure.
“These charges are a direct result of years of diligent work, thorough investigations, testing, and retesting to ensure our office was well-positioned to move forward,” said State’s Attorney Ivan J. Bates in a release.
Jury selection is expected to continue.
