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 ....