Birmingham Woman Sentenced to More than 11 Years in Prison for Arson

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – A Birmingham woman has been sentenced for placing an incendiary device outside of an apartment, announced U.S. Attorney Prim F. Escalona and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives Nashville Field Division Acting Special Agent in Charge Jason Stankiewicz.

U.S. District Court Judge Anna M. Manasco sentenced Kimberly Lanetta Blackmon, 39, to 135 months in prison. In July 2024, Blackmon pleaded guilty to arson.

According to the plea agreement, in the early morning of October 18, 2022, Blackmon forced her way into the lobby of an apartment complex in the Lakeview District of Birmingham. Blackmon then took the elevator to an apartment on the fourth floor that she believed belonged to an individual that was romantically linked to her ex-boyfriend. When she arrived at the apartment, Blackmon leaned an improvised incendiary device against the apartment 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 interior sprinkler system extinguished the fire before it could spread or cause injury, the device set by Blackmon caused nearly $470,000 in property damage.

ATF investigated the case along with the Birmingham Police Department. Assistant U.S. Attorney W. Lee Gilmer prosecuted the case.