During the closing arguments in the trial for a Baltimore man charged with starting a 2022 fire that killed three firefighters and injured three others, prosecutors said that James Edwin Barnett undoubtedly set the rowhome ablaze shortly before midnight on Jan. 23, 2022.

Barnett’s defense, on the other hand, argued that prosecutors didn’t have enough evidence to prove that the fire was intentionally set, much less that his client was responsible.

“The person of interest is absolutely not James Barnett,” defense attorney Jason Rodriguez said Wednesday.

Barnett, 58, is charged with second-degree arson, involuntary manslaughter and reckless endangerment in the 2022 blaze that killed Baltimore Fire Lt. Paul Butrim, Lt. Kelsey Sadler and EMT/firefighter Kenny Lacayo.

The blaze, which broke out in a vacant rowhome on Stricker Street in the city’s Mount Clare neighborhood, also seriously injured three other firefighters. The incident raised concerns about Baltimore City Fire Department policy and the city’s vacant home crisis.

On Tuesday, a judge dismissed the three second-degree murder charges that Barnett had faced.

A little after noon on Wednesday, following an eight-day trial, a Baltimore City jury was sent to deliberate on the charges that Barnett faces.

‘Where there is smoke, there is fire’

During closing arguments, Baltimore City Assistant State’s Attorney Matthew Galey said that surveillance videos show Barnett wearing a blue and yellow jacket and entering through the rear of the Stricker Street rowhome around 11:04 p.m. on Jan. 23, 2022.

Galey said the video shows four flashes of flames coming from the home around 11:08 p.m. Four minutes later, he said, Barnett is seen leaving the rowhome.

Before 6 a.m. the next morning, the entire first and second floors were on fire, charging documents state. Investigators said that no one else was seen entering the home between Barnett leaving and the sustained flames.

“Fires don’t start out of nowhere,” Galey said, adding that wisps of smoke could be seen coming from the house in the hours that followed.

“Where there is smoke, there is fire,” he said.

Galey said that investigators later found the blue and yellow jacket inside Barnett’s home. When investigators interviewed Barnett, Galey said, his answers were inconsistent. He said Barnett eventually admitted to being inside the house the night that investigators believe the fire began.

Galey said investigators conducted multiple tests to determine that the fire was started on purpose.

He said that Barnett’s actions led to a 911 call where it was reported that children were trapped inside the house. This, Galey said, led to firefighters going inside the house, which collapsed on them.

The wrong man

Rodriguez questioned whether arson was committed and argued that his client is not the state’s person of interest.

He said that the flashes didn’t develop into flames until well after the person left the rowhome that night. Arson requires willfulness and maliciousness, he said, and that isn’t present in this case.

Rodriquez also said the investigation into the fire wasn’t thorough enough to establish that the fire was set intentionally. “There’s all this other testing that could have occurred,” he said.

Barnett had trouble answering investigators’ questions precisely following the fire, Rodriguez said, because Barnett was using drugs in 2022.

“The fact that he doesn’t remember things precisely from over a month ago doesn’t make him guilty,” Rodriguez said.

Rodriguez also argued that his client never said in interviews with investigators that he was at the house the night of Jan. 23, 2022. He said Barnett told investigators he had been at the house over a month and a half before.

The man in the videos, Rodriguez said, looked, moved and acted younger than Barnett.

“It’s clearly a young man’s face, a young man’s walk, a young man’s mannerisms,” he said.

In response to Rodriguez’s comments about the age of the suspect, Assistant State’s Attorney Daniel Salem said that Barnett “moves like everyone else.”

There is nothing that could lead you to believe the man in the video is a young man, Salem said.

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