Birmingham woman sentenced to over 11 years in prison for arson attack

BIRMINGHAM, AL (WBMA) — A Birmingham woman has been sentenced to 135 months in prison for placing an incendiary device outside an apartment, U.S. Attorney Prim F. Escalona of North Alabama and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives Nashville Field Division Acting Special Agent in Charge Jason Stankiewicz announced.

U.S. District Court Judge Anna M. Manasco handed down the sentence to Kimberly Lanetta Blackmon, 39, following her guilty plea to arson in July 2024.

According to the plea agreement, Blackmon forced her way into the lobby of an apartment complex in Birmingham's Lakeview District in the early morning of October 18, 2022. She then took the elevator to a fourth-floor apartment she believed was linked to an individual romantically involved with her ex-boyfriend.

Upon reaching the apartment, Blackmon leaned an improvised incendiary device against the door and fled down a nearby stairwell. Moments later, the device exploded, creating a fireball that caused moderate damage to the door and the interior threshold of the apartment.

Although the building's sprinkler system extinguished the fire before it could spread or cause injury, the device set by Blackmon resulted in nearly $470,000 in property damage.

The case was investigated by the ATF and the Birmingham Police Department, with Assistant U.S. Attorney W. Lee Gilmer prosecuting.