New Jersey Criminal Defense Lawyer - NJ: Arson and Aggravated Arson in New Jersey

Arson in New Jersey comes in two varieties: “Ordinary” arson and aggravated arson. “Ordinary” arson is a lesser included offense of aggravated arson. We will first discuss aggravated arson. This discussion will then move on to ordinary arson.

Whenever a person is convicted in New Jersey of aggravated arson, it is virtually certain that the court will sentence that person to a term in State Prison. This term can be for up to ten years. Under certain circumstances it can be even longer. Even convictions for ordinary arson expose a person to a term in State Prison of up to five years. For these reasons alone, persons charged with, or suspected of any kind of arson should meet with an experienced New Jersey criminal defense lawyer. The lawyer will need time to adequately investigate the charges and prepare a defense. It will often be necessary to find, retain, and prepare experts. For all of these reasons, persons facing, or possibly facing, arson charges, should contact a lawyer immediately.

A person is guilty of aggravated arson if he starts a fire or causes an explosion,

whether on his own property or another's, under any of the following circumstances:

1. He purposely or knowingly places another person in danger of death or bodily injury; or

2. His purpose is to destroy a building or structure of another; or

3. His pupose is to collect insurance for the destruction or damage to such property under circumstances that recklessly placed any other person in danger of death or bodily injury; or

4. His purpose in destroying or damaging a structure is to exempt the structure, completely or partially, from the provisions of any State, county, or local zoning, planning, or building law, regulation, ordinance, or enactment, under circumstances that recklessly place any other person in danger of death or bodily injury; or

5. His purpose is to destroy or damage a forest.

Thus in order for an accused person to be found guilty of aggravated arson, the State of New Jersey must prove each the following elements beyond a reasonable doubt:

1. The accused person purposely startes a fire or caused an explosion. This purpose can be satisfied regardless of whether the fire or explosion is on someone else's property or his own;

arson charges in New Jersey need Criminal Defense Lawyer

2. That in doing so, any one of the following situations also exist:

The accused individual purposely or knowingly places another person in danger of death or bodily injury;
The purpose of the accused person is to destroy a building or structure belonging to another;
The purpose of the accused person is to collect insurance for the destruction or damage to such property under circumstances that recklessly place any other person in danger of death or bodily injury;
The purpose of destroying or damaging a structure is to exempt that structure, completely or partially, from the effect of certain legal regulation, under circumstances that recklessly placed any other person in danger of death or bodily injury; or
The accused person starts the fire or causes the explosion for the purpose of destroying or damaging any forest.

We will now look at each of the elements in more detail. The first element that New Jersey must prove is that the accused individual “purposely” starts a fire or causes an explosion. “Purpose,” under New Jersey law, means that it is the person's conscious object to commit the act, or cause the act to be committed. A person acts purposely with respect to attendant circumstances if he is aware of the existence of such circumstances or he believes or hopes that they exist. “With purpose,” “designed,” “with design,” or equivalent terms, have the same meaning.

“Purpose” is a state of mind. It cannot be seen. It can be determined only by inference from conduct, words, or acts. Therefore, the law does not require that New Jersey produce witnesses to testify that a defendant said that he purposely did something. His purpose may be gathered from his acts and conduct, from all that he said and did at the particular time and place, and from all the surrounding circumstances reflected in the testimony and adduced at trial.

Note also that it is not necessary that any significant damage be done. It is only necessary that a fire be started or an explosion be caused for one or more of the purposes. The lack of success of the perpetrator is immaterial.

The second element that New Jersey must prove is that at the time the accused individual starts the fire or causes the explosion, any one (or more) of the following conditions are satisfied:

fire and explosion charges in New Jersey arson need New Jersey Criminal Defense Lawyer

The accused individual purposely or knowingly places another person in danger of death or bodily injury. “Bodily injury” means physical pain, illness, or any impairment of physical condition. The requisite states of mind here are either purposely or knowingly. We have already covered “purposely.” We now turn to how New Jersey defines “knowingly.”

A person acts “knowingly” with respect to the nature of his conduct if he is aware that his conduct is of that nature. A person acts knowingly with respect to a result of his conduct if he is aware that it is practically certain that his conduct will cause such a result. “Knowing,” “with knowledge,” or equivalent terms have the same meaning. As with purposely, “knowingly” is a state of mind. It cannot be seen. It can be determined only by inference from conduct, words or acts. Therefore, New Jersey law does not require the prosecutor to produce witnesses to testify that a defendant said that he purposely did something. The purpose of the accused individual may be gathered from his acts and conduct, from all that he said and did at the particular time and place, and from all the surrounding circumstances reflected in the testimony and adduced at trial.
The purpose of the accused individual in starting the fire or causing the explosion is to destroy building or structure of another. “Destroy” means to demolish or to render useless or to render completely ineffective for its intended use. “Purposely” in this context has the same meaning as indicated above. “Structure” includes any building, room, ship, vessel, car, vehicle, or airplane. It also means any place adapted for overnight accommodation of persons or for carrying on business therein whether or not a person is actually present.
His purpose is to collect insurance for the destruction or damage to such property. Again we use the previous definition of “purpose” as indicated above.
The accused individual acts under circumstances that recklessly place any other person in danger of death or bodily injury. “Bodily injury” has the same meaning here as indicated above. However the requisite state of mind here is only “recklessly.” A person acts recklessly when he consciously disregards a substantial and unjustifiable risk. The risk must be of such a nature and degree that, considering the nature and purpose of the actor's conduct and the circumstances known to him, its disregard involves a gross deviation from the standard of conduct that a reasonable person would observe in the actor's situation.
The purpose of the accused individual is to destroy or damage a structure in order to exempt the structure, completely or partially, from the provisions of any State, county, local, zoning, planning, building law, regulation, ordinance, or enactment. “Purpose” has the same meaning here as indicated above.
His purpose is to destroy or damage any forest. “Forest” New Jersey defines “forest” to include brush land, grass land, salt marsh, wooded area, and any combination thereof. This would even include open space area, public lands, wetlands, park lands, natural habitats, a State conservation area, a wildlife refuge area or any other designated undeveloped open space. New Jersey considers such areas as forests, even when they are not subject to specific protection under law.

Having defined aggravated arson, we can now move on to “ordinary” arson. In many respects, the two offenses are quite similar. “Ordinary” arson differs from aggravated arson in that ordinary arson has fewer elements, or requires lower states of mind than aggravated arson.

A person is guilty of (non-aggravated) arson if he starts a fire or causes an explosion, whether on his own property or another's under any of the following circumstances:

1. He recklessly places another person in danger of death or bodily injury; or

Criminal Defense Lawyer in New Jersey fights arson and aggravated arson charges

2. He recklessly places a building or structure of another in danger of damage or destruction; or

3. His purpose is to collect insurance for the destruction or damage to the property; or

His purpose is to destroy or damage a structure in order to exempt the structure, completely or partially, from the provisions of any State, county or local zoning, planning or building law, regulation, ordinance or enactment; or

5. He recklessly places a forest in danger of damage or destruction.

Note that it is not necessary that significant damage be done. It is only necessary that a fire be started or an explosion be caused for one or more of the purposes, or under one or more of the circumstances just described. The lack of success of the perpetrator is immaterial.

In ordinary arson, the words “purposely,”, "“knowingly,”, “recklessly,” and “bodily injury” have the same meanings as defined under aggravated arson.