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A Fort Worth jury convicted a Watauga man Tuesday evening of arson of a habitation causing death for starting a fire at a Haltom City apartment complex in an attempt to collect a $100 drug debt.
Johnny Waller could face life in prison on the conviction.The jury received the case after 3 p.m. Tuesday and returned a verdict at 6:55 p.m. Waller had been accused in the June 21, 2008 fire that killed Geovany Guerra at the Spring Lake Apartment complex in Haltom City.Guerra was an innocent victim, prosecutors said.They told jurors that Waller had used a cell phone to order his friends to collect on a $100 drug debt.But Waller's associates could not find James Griggs, the man he said owed him the money, at the Spring Lake complex, so they left him a message, prosecutors Alan Levy and Miles Brissette said.Griggs’ apartment was ransacked and then torched. After firefighters extinguished the blaze that spread to other units in the complex, they discovered the body of the 20-year-old Guerra, the only resident not to escape the 4 a.m. fire. “It was about street credibility,” Levy told jurors Tuesday during closing statements in the trial. “If you didn’t pay him, you paid. Only in this case it went wrong.”Guerra didn't know either Waller or Griggs, according to testimony.Waller was accused along with his friends -- Alan LeMaster and brothers Jaime and Casimiro Sifuentes. Waller was arrested shortly after the fire. LeMaster was arrested last week and the Sifuentes brothers are currently in prison on unrelated convictions. Waller’s defense attorney, Danny Burns, told jurors that Waller wasn’t there that morning and that he didn’t know why the Sifuentes brothers would have set the fire.“Burning the place is counterproductive,” Burns said. “How are you going to get money if you take away their property?”Staff writer Mitch Mitchell contributed to this report.Nathaniel Jones, 817-390-7742
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