PASADENA — A Pasadena man has been sentenced to nine-years in federal prison after pleading guilty to setting Coconut Charlie’s bar on fire in July 2017.
Prosecutors argued that Jamie Clemons wanted to destroy surveillance video that captured him assaulting his girlfriend.
The bar reportedly sustained over $500,000 in damage, forcing it to permanently close.
An Anne Arundel County Police officer also witnessed the assault, which led to Clemons first being charged locally.
He later admitted that in the early morning of July 28, 2017, he assembled multiple incendiary devices akin to Molotov cocktails, then lit the wicks for the devices on fire, and threw them at the exterior of Coconut Charlie’s in an attempt to burn the structure and destroy the video surveillance system.
Investigators found a glove near where the fire was set which tested positive for the presence of an ignitable liquid and contained Clemons’ DNA.
A search warrant on Clemons’phone text messages revealed his concern about video evidence of the assault.
The blaze also left a firefighter injured after falling off a ladder.
