After four days of deliberations, a Baltimore City jury is still weighing whether to convict a Baltimore man of arson, involuntary manslaughter and reckless endangerment in a 2022 rowhouse fire that killed three firefighters and seriously injured three others.

With no verdict reached by the end of the day on Monday, the jury will return Tuesday morning to continue deliberating in the trial for 58-year-old James Edwin Barnett, who is accused of setting a vacant rowhouse ablaze on Stricker Street in the Mount Clare neighborhood in Central Southwest Baltimore in January 2022.

The jury has been deliberating since Wednesday.

Just before 11 a.m. Monday, the jury sent a note to Baltimore City Circuit Judge Alan Lazerow, saying that jurors were split and couldn’t come to a decision. In response, Lazerow instructed the jury to keep deliberating and working toward a unanimous decision.

Barnett could be sentenced to as many as 70 years in prison if he is convicted of the charges he faces. Prosecutors say his actions resulted in the deaths of Baltimore Fire Lt. Paul Butrim, Lt. Kelsey Sadler and EMT/firefighter Kenny Lacayo.

Barnett has denied involvement in the 2022 blaze. His defense argues that surveillance footage from the night that the fire is alleged to have started shows a younger man, not Barnett, walking into the vacant home.

Have a news tip? Contact Maggie Trovato at [email protected], 443-890-0601 or on X @MaggieTrovato.

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