Jury deadlocks in case over fatal South Stricker Street fire that killed 3 firefighters

A judge on Tuesday declared a mistrial in the case of a man who’s accused of setting a fire in a vacant rowhome on South Stricker Street in 2022 that killed three Baltimore firefighters after a jury could not reach a unanimous verdict.

Baltimore Circuit Judge Alan Lazerow asked jurors if they had been able to reach a unanimous verdict on any of the counts against James Barnett and whether additional deliberations would be fruitful before making the decision.

The jury deliberated for about 4 1/2 days.

“You have my thanks and gratitude for the time you spent away from your lives,” Lazerow said. “You all were a wonderful jury.”

Barnett, 58, of West Baltimore, stood trial on charges of involuntary manslaughter, arson and reckless endangerment.

Before closing arguments, Lazerow threw out the most serious charges — three counts of second-degree murder — after finding that prosecutors had presented insufficient evidence to support a conviction.

Baltimore City Fire Lt. Kelsey Sadler, Lt. Paul Butrim and EMT/firefighter Kenny Lacayo were killed on Jan. 24, 2022, after the building collapsed. Three additional firefighters were hurt, and the fire displaced two neighbors.

In a statement, Baltimore State’s Attorney Ivan Bates said “our commitment to these families and to pursuing justice has not changed.”

“Justice delayed is justice denied,” Bates said. “We recognize that not every case results in a conviction on the first attempt, and not every path to accountability is easy. But a case’s difficulty will never diminish our responsibility to pursue justice for the victims and their loved ones.”

Bates said his office will “carefully evaluate the next steps and continue to do everything in our power to hold the defendant accountable for the devastating consequences of his alleged actions.”

The federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives headed the investigation and recovered surveillance video, which prosecutors said showed Barnett entering the house the night before wearing a distinct blue and yellow jacket and staying for eight minutes.

They asserted that the footage shows four flashes of light that were flames. Then, about one hour later, smoke started coming from the house, prosecutors reported.

Law enforcement canvassed the area and monitored CitiWatch cameras for leads. They noticed a shopping cart filled with scrap metal near a large pile of burnt material.

Investigators later spotted Barnett pushing the shopping cart, followed him to a vacant home on Ashton Street and discovered what they claimed was the same jacket.

Barnett told investigators that he used to live in the house on South Stricker Street and went inside the building but denied that he was the person of interest captured in the surveillance video. He proclaimed that he did not set the fire.

“Fires don’t start out of nowhere,” Assistant State’s Attorney Matthew Galey said in his closing argument. “There is no doubt that what he did inside caused the fire.”

Galey said it was “only by the grace of God that there were not more bodies.”

But Assistant Public Defender Jason Rodriguez said prosecutors failed to even prove that a crime had been committed.

Rodriguez said there was no evidence that the fire had been willfully and maliciously set. He also disputed that his client was the man captured in surveillance video.

Barnett was getting high every day and living in vacant homes, Rodriguez said. He told the jury not to take his client’s statements to investigators as the gospel.

“James Barnett is completely innocent of each and every one of the charges in front of you,” Rodriguez said in his closing argument.

Baltimore City Fire Chief Niles Ford in 2022 abruptly resigned alongside the release of the report that faulted the agency for failing to follow past recommendations following close calls and previous line-of-duty deaths.

Earlier this year, U.S. District Judge Matthew Maddox allowed the families of the firefighters to try to sue the city for a third time. They allege that the government ended a program meant to flag buildings that were unsafe, hid that information from the rank and file, and sent the firefighters into a death trap.

Barnett is being held in the Metropolitan Transition Center without bail.