View this article online: https://www.insurancejournal.com/news/east/2018/10/30/506017.htm
The former pastor of a Baltimore, Md., church has been sentenced to three years in prison for setting fire to an apartment he rented in Southeast Washington in a plan to collect insurance money.
The announcement was made by U.S. Attorney Jessie K. Liu, Thomas L. Chittum III, special agent in charge of the Washington Field Division of the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), and Peter Newsham, chief of the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD).
Jamel Carelock, who was pastor of Lead Church, pled guilty in August 2018 in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia to charges of arson, felony destruction of property and second-degree insurance fraud. He was sentenced by the Honorable Jennifer A. Di Toro. Following his prison term, he will be placed on two years of probation.
According to the government’s evidence, on Dec. 17, 2017, at approximately 1 a.m., Carelock intentionally set fire to his apartment unit. Carelock soaked his mattress with gasoline and lit the mattress on fire, causing the fire to burn and causing extensive damage to his unit and the surrounding apartments.
The apartment complex includes 94 units, and the residents included small children and elderly individuals, who were home at the time of the fire and forced to evacuate. The fire caused more than $40,000 worth of damage and rendered at least one of the neighboring apartments uninhabitable. A law enforcement investigation revealed that Carelock had applied for an insurance policy eight days prior to the fire. He later filed a claim for more than $11,000 in damage to his property, with the intent to defraud the insurance company.
In making the insurance claim, the evidence showed, Carelock presented materially false information. He misrepresented that he was not responsible for the fire, falsely claimed that he was in Georgia at the time of the blaze and falsely claimed that he lost personal items, including suits and a television. In fact, Carelock had removed those items from the unit before the fire, and he still had them at the time that he made the insurance claim.
The investigation also determined that Carelock’s cell phone was one mile away from the fire five minutes after the fire alarm was pulled. Carelock was arrested on Jan. 19, 2018, and has been in custody ever since.
Source: United States Department of Justice