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Convicted arsonist charged in Fallon fires

James Brown jailed on $150,000 bail

LANA MUTHLER/THE EXPRESS
A burnt chair lies outside 222 E. Water St. on Wednesday.

LOCK HAVEN — A two-time convicted arsonist has been charged with setting five fires in the city within the last four days. James Arnold Brown, 52, of 216 E. Water St., Lock Haven, was arrested by city police early Wed-nesday morning, not long after he allegedly set fire to a chair on the front porch of a neighbor, David Nestlerode, of 222 E. Water St.

That’s the fifth fire Brown is charged with setting since Sunday, when four fires, two of them at the Fallon Hotel, called out local firefighters. All are arson, police said.

During his arraignment Wednesday afternoon, Brown told District Judge Keith Kibler that he has been convicted of arson on two previous occasions.

“I served seven years at Camp Hill for arson during the Camp Hill riots,” Brown said matter-of-factly. The Camp Hill Prison riots took place in 1989,

He also was charged with arson last summer for a fire at Kephart Plaza and was sentenced to nine months in the county jail and three years’ probation.

In the latest string of arsons, city police charged Brown with three counts of arson, two counts of arson endangering property, two counts of risking a catastrophe and one count each of criminal mischief and recklessly endangering another person.

Kibler set bail at $150,000, telling Brown “with your most recent conviction of arson, I believe you are a substantial risk to the community.”

According to the criminal complaint:

Brown’s arrest came shortly after 6 a.m. Wednesday, after Nestlerode told police he heard some noise on the front porch and went outside to look. He said he saw two-foot flames coming from a chair on fire on his porch, and also saw an older white male with shoulder-length white hair leaving the porch and going into a door just down from his.

Nestlerode identified the door the suspect went into, and police went to the door and met Brown. Police said he matched Nestlerode’s description of the man on his porch.

Brown agreed to go to City Hall for an interview. While outside, Nestlerode positively identified Brown as the same person he’d seen leaving his porch.

At City Hall, Brown did waive his Miranda warnings.

He told police he moved to 216 E. Water St. four days ago. Brown denied any involvement with the fire at first, but as the interview continued, Brown indicated that he “needed help.”

He talked about Sunday’s fires, stating that he started a fire in a truck at The Fallon Hotel, but denied setting fire to leaves by a concrete ramp next to the hotel’s rear steps. Brown said he did return to the Fallon after dark and set the rear steps on fire. But he denied setting the fire in the Dumpster in the alley between Grove and Jay streets, behind his residence.

Brown also reported he was walking in the morning hours Wednesday and stopped to move a chair in front of a window on Nestlerode’s porch and set the chair on fire.

Brown told police he used a lighter each time and watched the fire department response each time.

Last Sunday’s rash of fires began at 4:37 p.m., when firefighters and police responded to a fire call at The Fallon Hotel, 131 E. Water St., just a block away from Brown’s address.

Based on the initial investigation, it was determined that more than one small fire was set… one inside an abandoned Ford truck parked along the rear of the Fallon, and another to leaf debris at a concrete ramp right beside the building and on the steps at the rear entrance door.

State Police Fire Marshal Nick Loffredo determined that both of those fires were set within a very short time frame of one another.

At 8:59 p.m. Sunday, police responded to a second fire call at the Fallon. This fire prompted a larger emergency response from fire and EMS units. It was determined a porch and steps at the rear entrance were set on fire again.

A Dumpster was also set on fire behind 216 E. Water St., at the same time, and was extinguished by neighbors. That address is the same as the one given by Brown when he was arrested Wednesday.

A witness, Joseph Sanders III, reported seeing Brown in Fallon Alley during this fire response. City Police Officer Brian Kitko was aware of Brown being previously arrested for arson on June 22, 2017 at 360 E. Park St., Lock Haven. Officer Kitko interviewed Brown and he denied any involvement.

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