Originally posted Thu, 2009-06-18 10:29
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NSBNEWS.net photos by Henry Frederick. This photo of the charred remains of a home on Palm Street was taken the day after an Aug. 6, 2008, arson fire that resulted Wednesday in a 25-year prison sentence for Desmond Matthew Blount, 21, of Edgewater.
NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- Retaliation by burning a man's home for a stolen bicycle has landed a 21-year-old Edgewater man in prison for 25 years.
Demond Matthew Blount was sentenced June 5, by Circuit Judge Frank Marriott at the Volusia County Courthouse in DeLand for his no contest plea to arson in the Aug. 6, 2008, fire that destroyed a home at 332 Palm St., in a small winding neighborhood tucked away a couple of blocks west of North Dixie Freeway, in the predominantly black West Side community.
Blount initially denied any involvement, but later admitted to torching the residence owned by 63-year-old Joseph Dominic Berkley.
Blount first threw a plastic bottle into the victim's home at 12:47 a.m., which the homeowner quickly extinguished, but frightened him enough to seek shelter elsewhere the rest of the night. Blount returned and did the same thing four hours later, but his time the flames took to the wood frame, first on the porch and then the attic as responding fire fighter units arrived.
The New Smyrna Beach Fire Department subsequently extinguished the fire and a joint investigation into the cause of the fire was initiated. The agencies involved in the joint investigation included the New Smyrna Beach Police Department, the State Fire Marshal and the New Smyrna Beach Fire Department/Fire Marshal.
"Through their investigation and with the utilization of an accelerant-detecting canine, the state and local fire marshals determined that the fire was intentionally set," New Smyrna Beach police spokesman Sgt. Mike Brouillette said after the arrest. "Through interviews with eyewitnesses and other evidence recovered from both incidents, a suspect was identified and subsequently arrested."
Fire officials said Blount was apprehended a short distance from the fire and later admitted setting the blaze because he was upset about a stolen bicycle. The wood frame house was condemned with damage assessed in excess of $75,000.
Blount was initially charged with charged with first-degree arson and projecting a destructive device into a residence, a second-degree, felonies that could have landed him almost twice as much time in prison.