Kansas
Woman pleads guilty to arson-for-hire scheme along Kansas City’s 39th Street restaurant row
The plan was to rent an arsonist to burn down the industrial constructing on the northeast nook of 39th and Bell streets in Kansas Metropolis and gather at the least $1.5 million in insurance coverage proceeds.
What the constructing’s proprietor didn’t know was that the would-be arsonist was an secret agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, which had been tipped off in regards to the arson-for-hire plan by a confidential informant.
The constructing’s proprietor, 70-year-old Mia Lee Jamison of Gladstone, Missouri, provided the secret agent $150,000, or 10% of the insurance coverage proceeds, to torch the constructing, which housed a liquor and grocery retailer, a sushi bar and a hookah lounge.
Jamison needed the hearth to appear like an accident, she informed the secret agent. The agent agreed to set the hearth between 3 a.m. and 5 a.m. to attenuate the chance to tenants.
At round 4 a.m. on April 29, 2019, federal investigators went to Jamison’s house and knowledgeable her {that a} fireplace had fully destroyed the jap portion of the constructing and partially destroyed the western aspect.
Jamison informed them she’d owned the constructing since 1985 or 1986, had a $2 million insurance coverage coverage on the constructing and was concerned in litigation over the construction. When requested if she’d burned down the constructing herself or requested another person to take action, she mentioned no.
It was then that the investigators informed her the constructing had not been broken in a fireplace and arrested her.
Earlier this week, Jamison pleaded responsible to at least one depend of soliciting somebody to destroy the constructing by arson and a second depend of mendacity to ATF investigators. She faces as much as 10 years in jail and a $125,000 wonderful on the primary depend and as much as 5 years in jail and a $250,000 wonderful on the second depend.
Greater than 30 years in the past, a fireplace destroyed the smaller, western aspect of the constructing. It was rebuilt and, till not too long ago, housed Bob Wasabi Kitchen, the sushi bar, and 39th World of Spirits, the liquor and grocery retailer.
The constructing has been fenced off since late final 12 months and is not occupied. It’s now owned by Doug Worth, a principal of the Worth Brothers actual property growth firm.
Worth couldn’t be reached for remark about his plans for the constructing, which eight many years in the past housed the Giles movie show and within the intervening years has housed a multiplicity of companies, together with a ironmongery store.
However neighboring enterprise house owners mentioned plans name for the constructing to be offered to a grocery retailer operator, which intends to transform it to a neighborhood grocery, liquor and comfort retailer.
“That’s a unbelievable use, that’s one of the best factor that would occur to it,” mentioned Tom Wayne, the proprietor of Prospero’s Books, a longtime neighborhood fixture straight west of the constructing.
“I’m actually wanting ahead to it,” Wayne mentioned, “principally as a result of I’m sick of getting to stroll down the road to a liquor retailer. I simply need to stroll throughout the road to a liquor retailer.”