Syracuse, NY -- A Syracuse man who set three dozen fires as a teenager in Chicago -- two fatal -- was convicted by a jury of third-degree arson today for a trailer fire on Park Avenue last year. The Onondaga County jury took about eight hours over two days to reach its verdict against Alan Norcutt, 62, of Sackett...
A jury convicted Alan Norcutt of setting a neighbor's camping trailer on fire. Norcutt previously set three dozen fires - two fatal - in Chicago four decades ago. Syracuse, NY -- A Syracuse man who set three dozen fires as a teenager in Chicago -- two fatal -- was convicted by a jury of third-degree arson today for a trailer fire on Park Avenue last year.
The Onondaga County jury took about eight hours over two days to reach its verdict against Alan Norcutt, 62, of Sackett Street.
Norcutt set fire to his neighbor's camping trailer using a can of barbecue lighter fluid Oct. 23, the jury found.
As a 17-year-old, Norcutt was convicted of arson and murder charges for a December 1964 fire that killed a Chicago firefighter. That fire was set less than a month after Norcutt was released from a reformatory where he had served 10 months for arson and involuntary manslaughter in an August 1963 rooming-house fire that killed two people.
The son of the Chicago firefighter, Joe Carone Jr., was among relatives of Norcutt's victims who attended the four-day trial before County Court Judge Anthony Aloi.
The jury did not hear about Norcutt's previous arson convictions because Aloi ruled it would prejudice the panel in determining the facts relating to the recent arson.