Two homes burned. Officials say it was arson, staged as a hate crime.

Florida man burned his homes in staged 'hate crime,' officials say - The Washington Post

By the time a Florida detective responded to a call about a suspicious house fire in March, the home had already burned. Outside, someone had put up a white yard sign with a swastika, according to investigators. It read: “This is our land Latinos are not welcome.” Nearby, another home owned by the same person burned minutes later, with a similar sign making an appearance.

Later that day, Clay County sheriff’s deputies met with the owner of the homes, who told them that nobody had been to the properties in a few days. Detectives left to continue their investigation, but as they reviewed mortgage documents, phone records and video footage, they were drawn back to the homeowner.

According to authorities, the man had financed loans for the houses from a mortgage corporation in October. But he had missed all his monthly payments, resulting in an unpaid balance of more than $39,000, investigators said. He told a colleague who later spoke with law enforcement that a friend had suggested he set his homes on fire for insurance money, according to officials.

Detectives determined the homeowner had torched his own houses on March 13 and tried to cover up his felonies by staging them as a hate crime. The sheriff’s office arrested the suspect, 44-year-old George Carneiro, on Friday and charged him with second-degree arson.

“I have zero tolerance for anyone who comes into our community and uses hate as a cover for their own schemes,” Sheriff Michelle Cook said in a statement. “We are fortunate that incidents like this are extremely rare in Clay County.”

Carneiro and his attorney did not respond to requests for comment on Wednesday night.

At both Middleburg, Fla., houses, detectives said, they found a five-gallon fuel tank near the back door. The fires occurred about 26 minutes apart at homes separated by just over four miles, according to an arrest report by the sheriff’s office.

Investigators said they soon learned that the homes had been purchased by the same person for a total of $110,000. Video footage showed a white Nissan van near the homes around when the fires occurred, detectives said.

The owner lived about 32 miles away, in St. Johns, Fla., investigators said. When officers met him there, he denied owning a van and didn’t express concern about the messages left at the houses, according to the arrest report.

“The defendant appeared nervous during our brief interaction and asked multiple times for our advice on how he should proceed forward,” the arrest affidavit states.

That day, detectives learned that the man’s first loan payments with 21st Mortgage Corporation were due in November. He didn’t pay that or any payments in subsequent months, leaving him with a debt of $39,345.05, investigators said.

The suspect worked for a painting company, and a colleague in the industry told investigators in April that Carneiro had asked him on March 11 to purchase and fill up fuel tanks for a job, according to the arrest report. The man fulfilled that request the next day — unaware of Carneiro’s plan — and brought them with him to a job site in St. Johns on March 13, investigators said.

When Carneiro arrived at the job site that morning, he said he needed to borrow his colleague’s Nissan without an explanation, the arrest report states. When he returned about two hours later, three of the four fuel tanks in the car were gone, investigators said. His colleague told detectives that Carneiro offered him money to not speak with law enforcement, according to the arrest affidavit.

After investigators received a search warrant for Carneiro’s phone records last month, they said, they found that his phone was pinging on cell towers near the homes around the time they were on fire. He was arrested and taken to the Clay County Jail, but a sheriff’s office spokesman said he has since been released on bond.