INDIANAPOLIS -- A 27-year-old Indianapolis man will spend decades behind bars for starting a fire that killed another man in October 2015.
Jean Claude Brown, 27, a native of Liberia, was arrested and charged with arson and murder for allegedly starting a fire in a Near Eastside duplex on October 20, 2015.
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The fire did more than $50,000 in damages to the home, which was occupied by 44-year-old Ralph Chew on one side and a young couple on the other.
The couple was able to escape the home unharmed.
Fire crews had to enter the home to retrieve Chew, who was pronounced dead a short time later at Eskenazi Hospital.
Shortly before the fire began, Brown was captured on surveillance video at a nearby gas station filling a bottle with fuel, and then walking in the direction of the home.
Prosecutors said they believed Brown set the fire after being told he was no longer welcome at the residence.
On Tuesday, Brown pleaded guilty to murder in the case. He was sentenced to 45 years in the Indiana Department of Correction.
