Michigan man found guilty of murder for setting blaze that killed five children
After less than five hours of deliberations, a Michigan jury found Juwan Deering guilty of first-degree felony murder for setting a house fire to avenge a drug debt, killing five children trapped inside. Deering faces a mandatory sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole.
KEY DOCUMENTS
The Indictment
An Oakland County grand jury charged Juwan Deering with five counts of felony murder and one count of arson.
The morning after a fire destroyed her home, a Michigan mother, who lost four of her eight children in the blaze, allegedly said that "she had too many kids to start with" to a friend who testified in the trial of Juwan Deering, who is accused of starting the fire.
Juwan Deering claimed he was smoking marijuana with the father of one of the children who died in a blaze Deering is on trial for starting, according to a statement introduced to jurors just before the state rested its case Thursday.
A jailhouse informant testified that Juwan Deering, on trial for setting a blaze that killed five children, admitted to him that he started the deadly fire over a drug debt, but that he never intended for children to die.
Four months after prosecutors claim Juwan Deering set a house fire that killed five children, the Michigan man allegedly threatened to "firebomb" the home of a police officer, a witness in Deering's murder trial testified Monday.
Juwan Deering said he couldn't have set the house fire that killed five children of a man who owed him money because he was having sex with a girlfriend at the time. But that woman denied his story, as did another witness.
More Stories
- •July 20, 2006
Mother whose children died in blaze testifies - •Case background
Trial opens for Michigan man accused of killing five children in fire
CASE IN BRIEF
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Accused of setting a deadly house that killed five children over an alleged drug debt, Juwan Deering stands trial for murder and arson.
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