A 32-year-old man has been sentenced to prison for starting two separate fires , including one in 2023 outside the historic Freighthouse Square in Tacoma.
Jabari Ahkiel Jones pleaded guilty to first-degree arson and first-degree reckless burning in Pierce County Superior Court on Thursday . He was sentenced to six years, five months in prison, court records show.
Jones was seen on surveillance video stacking wood and garbage on the south side of the more than 110-year-old Freighthouse Square building on March 8, 2023. The fire burned a wall up to the roof, leaving char marks and causing about $20,000 in damage, charging documents show.
Sounder commuter train staff and passengers were inside the building when the fire started at about 4:15 a.m., but no one was injured, prosecutors wrote.
Jones was arrested a week later for the fire when a tipster recognized him from a Crime Stopper bulletin. He initially faced a first-degree arson charge for the Freighthouse Square fire, and he was later linked to a July 2021 fire and explosion in the 900 block of Martin Luther King Jr. Way. That fire caused $15,000 worth of damage. Jones was later charged with first-degree reckless burning for the incident, court records show.