The owner of an illegal rooming house in D.C. was sentenced to nearly 36 years in prison on Friday for creating what a judge called a “death trap” that killed a 10-year-old boy and a man when a fire broke out in 2019.
On an emotional day in court, Judge Todd Edelman handed down what he called a death sentence to James Walker. He told him he often sentences young people but knows the length of the sentence he imposed to Walker will likely confine him for the rest of his life.
After a fire broke out at 708 Kennedy St. NW on Aug. 18, 2019, bystanders and D.C. officers tried desperately to remove a locked iron gate. They could hear people inside the home screaming for help…