A jury acquitted a Michigan man Thursday of torching a Merrillville man’s home who had gone on a few dates with his ex-girlfriend.
Joseph Desi, 39, of Buchanan, Michigan, was found not guilty on both counts of Level 4 Felony arson.
Deputy Prosecutor Gary Marek, with co-counsel Adam Martin, said Tuesday Desi lit up the man’s garage in a “fit of rage” just past midnight on May 21, 2022. The fire destroyed the man’s home and spread to a neighbor’s home.
Defense lawyer Russell Brown argued the evidence was weak, which included a fuzzy surveillance video. He also said Desi sold a truck depicted on video a few months before the fire.
On Thursday, Desi’s co-worker and friend Roshanta Collins testified that they met at a nearby 24-hour McDonald’s, 2900 81st Ave., in Merrillville where he loaned her $1,000 to help with bills.
In a deposition on Monday, Collins first said she wasn’t entirely sure which day they met that weekend. Later, however, she noticed she marked in a datebook showing they met just before midnight late on Friday, May 20, 2022 — the time of the fire.
In opening arguments on Tuesday, Russell told jurors that cellphone records backed up her story. Collins at first thought they might have met on Saturday night. The cellphone showed Desi was in the area on Friday but in Michigan on Saturday.
Police were called just after midnight on May 21, 2022, to the 3300 block of W. 79th Place, where a home was “fully engulfed.”
The man who lived there said everyone was out OK. He was in bed when he heard a “boom,” the house “shook” and he heard “crackling noises.” At first, he thought it was lightning.
A neighbor knocked on his door, saying his house was on fire, too.
A nearby security camera captured a man going into the first house’s open garage, and then running down the street. A witness said he saw a dark-colored “suspicious truck” ten minutes before an “explosion.”
The man said he discovered his garage on fire. He could only save two of three cats in the house and lost about $400,000 worth of property, including the car and motorcycle in the garage.
A woman told police the man took her on a date on May 13, 2022, on his motorcycle. Desi, her ex-boyfriend, “confronted” her after she got home.
He was likely watching her house. Desi was “extremely possessive” and “jealous.”
He drove from Michigan “unannounced” to put notes and flowers on her car. He was “controlling” and “desperate” to get back together.
The woman went on a second date with the man on May 20, 2022. She was “suspicious” when he said the house was set on fire. She looked and found two trackers under her car.
The woman identified Desi’s car in security footage and was “physically distraught,” saying he had no reason to be there other than her.
A Merrillville fire inspector concluded the fire spread from a “flammable liquid.”
mcolias@post-trib.com