Arson for Profit Conviction Affirmed

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Evidence that is “inextricably intertwined” with the charged arson conspiracies is admissible in an arson for profit trial especially when the earlier fire was used as a “playbook” for the fire that is the subject of the appeal.

In United States Of America v. James Edward Lester, a/k/a Punkin, No. 19-4333, United States Court Of Appeals For The Fourth Circuit (June 9, 2020) a jury convicted James Lester of arson conspiracy.

ZALMA OPINION

Arson for profit is the most dangerous and vicious form of insurance fraud. Often firefighters or innocent neighbors are injured or killed by an arson fire. In this case the defendant had tried fraud with a fire before working with co-conspirators to set two more fires making claim for the destruction of the same property involved in the earlier fire. That fact made the evidence of the earlier fire – the Wharncliffe fire – inextricably intertwined with the fires for which he was tried and convicted.