A Rock County jury finds a Fort Atkinson man not guilty of arson and attempted homicide.
31-year-old Jacob Piper was on trial last week for a Janesville house fire in May of 2020 that witnesses claimed he started with a Molotov cocktail.
His attorney Mark Eisenberg successfully argued against the inconsistencies in witness testimony, and his own fire investigator Kim May pointed out flaws in how the fire was investigated by the Janesville police and fire departments.
Prosecutors had GPS evidence of Piper’s vehicle at the scene of the fire around the time it was reported, but the investigator said the timing didn’t line up with how long the fire had been burning.
Other potential causes of the fire were present on the porch, leaving enough doubt for the jury to acquit in the early morning hours of Saturday after hours of deliberation.
