News Tribune
A juvenile suspect in a January East Duluth garage fire pleaded guilty to first-degree arson on Monday, Duluth police said.
Cody Lee Walker-Nelson, 17, entered a juvenile treatment program and will be on probation until March 15, 2010.
"Walker is lodged at Arrowhead Juvenile Correction Center for a
four- to six-month program and will remain on probation until his 19th birthday," a police statement said Wednesday.
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Walker-Nelson was arrested Jan. 8 and charged with first-degree arson and first-degree burglary -- both felonies -- in connection with a fire at 1720 E. Fifth St. early that day. The fire caused an estimated $15,000 in damages to the building and $10,000 to its contents. A woman and her daughter were sleeping in the attached house when police officers woke them and escorted them from the building about 1:20 a.m.
Fire investigators determined the fire was intentionally set using wood furniture, books and magazines that had been stored in the garage.
A police dog led officers from the fire scene to Walker-Nelson's house. There officers found wet boots that matched the tread patterns leading from the fire scene and clothes that smelled of smoke that matched a witness' description of what a person seen running from the area was wearing.
The fire was the eighth arson or possible arson fire since October between
15th and 17th avenues east and between Fourth and Fifth streets. Police believe Walker-Nelson might be responsible for the earlier fires, and asks that anyone with information on previous suspicious fires to call the arson line at (218)
730-5080.
There haven't been further suspicious fires in the area since police took Walker-Nelson into custody, police Sgt. Leigh Wright said.
Walker-Nelson had been on probation until last summer. He was charged in July 2007 with assault with a dangerous weapon and was found guilty and adjudicated delinquent. He was placed on probation until 2010, but that probation was then ended in August. Among the conditions of his probation was that he was to take medications only in prescribed dosage and frequency.
