BOSTON, Dec. 6 2004 – LAWFUEL – First for law news — A Cambridge man appeared today in federal court following his arrest late Friday, December 3, 2004 on a complaint
charging him with two felony offenses stemming from an early-morning fire that
occurred in Cambridge on November 14, 2004.
United States Attorney Michael J. Sullivan and William J. Hoover, Special
Agent in Charge of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in
New England, announced today that ROBERT L. WYATT, age 40, of Cambridge was
charged in a criminal complaint with arson and with possessing and carrying an
incendiary device, a “Molotov cocktail”, in furtherance of a violent crime.
According to an affidavit filed in support of the complaint, WYATT’s
girlfriend had an altercation with some of the residents of 264 Putnam Avenue
in Cambridge the evening prior to the fire. It is alleged that WYATT returned
at approximately 4:30 a.m. on November 14 and threw two or three Molotov
cocktails into the building. A woman and her ten-month-old baby were sleeping
in the room at the time, and the ensuing fire required the evacuation of not
only the mother and the baby but all of the residents of the building.
WYATT appeared today before U.S. Magistrate Judge Lawrence P. Cohen.
WYATT is being detained pending trial. A probable cause hearing has been
scheduled for December 14, 2004 at 2:15 p.m. If convicted on the arson
charge, WYATT faces a minimum mandatory sentence of 7 years and a maximum
possible sentence of 20 years in prison. If convicted on the charge of
possessing and carrying the Molotov cocktail, WYATT faces a minimum mandatory
sentence of 30 years and a maximum possible sentence of life in prison. Both
charges carry maximum possible fines of $250,000.
The case was investigated by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and
Explosives, the Cambridge Fire Department, the Cambridge Police Department,
and the State Fire Marshal’s Office. It is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S.
Attorney Robert E. Richardson in Sullivan’s Major Crimes Unit.
