Parolee Accused of Arson in Fires at Halfway Houses

A prison parolee has been charged with setting two Pacoima halfway houses on fire after a fight with another parolee whom he regarded as a “snitch,” Los Angeles Fire Department investigators said Thursday.

The fires injured no one but forced several parolees to flee at about 2:30 p.m. Monday. They caused an estimated $75,000 in damage to the two houses, which occupy a single lot in the 13100 block of West Del Sur Street.

Claude Baggett, 28, is being held without bail on two counts of arson in Los Angeles County Jail, said Capt. William Zaring of the Fire Department arson section.

Baggett served 3 1/2 years of a four-year prison sentence on a manslaughter conviction before being paroled from the California Institution for Men at Chino in August, according to arson investigator Mark Pearson. He had been staying at another Pacoima halfway house on Chadron Avenue.

In Monday’s incident, Pearson said, Baggett tried to enter one of the houses on West Del Sur Street but was locked out. He set a small rubbish fire on the ground outside the house, and a parolee who had served time with Baggett at Chino came out of the house and put out the fire, Pearson said.

The men scuffled, Pearson said, and the other parolee, who was not identified, called police. Baggett, meanwhile, allegedly set fire to a stick and touched it to curtains in each house, the investigator said.

Los Angeles police arrested Baggett a few blocks away, Pearson said.

“Baggett said he would burn down both houses,” Pearson said. “He said the guy was a snitch. It was a definite spite situation.”