Arson charge – Jury acquits juvenile

Our juvenile client was tried on one count of committing a home burglary and two counts of setting fire to the same home. On the second occasion the fire resulted in its complete destruction. For tactical reasons, we elected to have a trial before a Supreme Court judge and jury, rather than by the President of the Children’s Court. After a 5-day trial involving both of his co-offenders implicating him to varying degrees and evidence of our client’s DNA on items stolen from the house, it took a unanimous jury just over two hours to return not guilty verdicts on all counts.