Two Unusual Cases: Is Drinking Alcohol a “Device Designed to Accelerate?” And, Crime on the High Seas

By Ray Hill
Professor Emeritus
Santa Rosa Junior College

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Here we discuss two unusual cases, one involving flaming whiskey and the other a cruise ship crime.

Case One: Whiskey Through the Cat Door

Ruling

Alcohol as an Accelerant is a “Device Designed to Accelerate a Fire:  (451.1(a)(5) P.C. (Peo. v. Johnson (2022) 2022 WL 17592; 2022 Cal. App. Lexis 10121).

Case Background

After a failed domestic relationship involving her former partner, defendant started a fire in a Cotati home by pouring whiskey through a “cat door” and lighting the interior on fire. A partially burned polystyrene cup of noodles container was found inside the door. The defendant was seen watching the residence the day prior to the fire. On the day of the fire, a neighbor saw a woman matching the defendant’s physical description exit a vehicle in front of the victim’s residence and walk up to the house with a plastic bag in her hand. Thirty minutes later, the neighbor saw smoke coming out of the back of the house and called 911. When the defendant was arrested the following day, several similar noodle cups, a partially filled bottle of whiskey, and two torch lighters were found in her vehicle. Defendant was convicted of arson of a structure (451(b) P.C.) with an enhancement that she “used an accelerant device” in starting the fire (451.1(a)(5) P.C). Defendant argued on appeal that alcohol is neither a device – instead, it is consumed as a drink – nor designed to ....

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