An 18-year-old man allegedly set fire to a car in a Duluth apartment parking lot early one morning, causing flames to engulf two vehicles and damage others, according to new criminal charges.
Justice Lee Wright, of Cloquet, faces four charges filed October 20 in Saint Louis County District Court: second-degree arson, two counts of negligent fires and tampering with a motor vehicle.
According to the complaint, officers and the fire department responded at 6:34 a.m. on October 17 to a report of explosions and visible flames coming from two cars in the parking lot of an apartment complex in Duluth. When they arrived, they found a 2008 Chevy Impala and a 2019 Buick Envision completely engulfed in flames. The fire also caused heat damage to a Skyjack aerial lift. A 2023 Buick Encore parked nearby had deep scratches along a door.
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Surveillance video from the parking lot showed a man in a dark hooded sweatshirt and jeans walking through the lot at 5:35 a.m. The video captured him breaking the windows of the Chevy Impala and lighting the inside of the car on fire. When the fire smoldered out, he lit it again, then rummaged through the trunk and started a second fire there.
The complaint says the man looked directly at the camera at one point, and his sweatshirt had the word “ap5der” across the chest. The fire from the Impala spread to the Buick Envision.
The video also showed the man attempting to get into the Buick Encore. Officers later found a multitool on the ground next to that vehicle.
At 7:04 a.m., officers were called to another area nearby for a report of a male in all black trying to get into vehicles and setting off a car alarm. Officers found a man matching the description and, after a chase, arrested him. He was identified as Justice Lee Wright and was wearing the same clothes seen in the surveillance footage from earlier that morning.
The charges against Wright include second-degree arson for setting fire to a building or vehicle valued at $1,000 or more, two counts of negligent fires for causing property damage valued at $2,500 or more and under $300 and tampering with a motor vehicle for entering a vehicle without the owner’s permission.
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Jurisdictional Context
Saint Louis County is Minnesota’s largest county by area, stretching from Duluth to the Canadian border. The Saint Louis County Attorney’s Office prosecutes felonies through the Sixth Judicial District; cases are heard at courthouses in Duluth, Hibbing and Virginia.
