Convicted Sex Offender Sentenced to Six Years’ Imprisonment for Arson
United States Attorney Richard G. Frohling announced that on June 28, 2022, Chief United States District Judge Pamela Pepper sentenced Darrell Chambliss (age: 31) to 72 months’ imprisonment, followed by three years of supervised release, for arson.
According to court records, Chambliss purposefully started a fire in the upper-unit of a duplex in Milwaukee on February 6, 2021. Chambliss had lived in that residence with a former romantic partner, whom he abused. When that victim did not return to the residence on February 6, 2021, Chambliss threatened her and recorded himself placing a mattress pad on top of their stove. Law enforcement ultimately found three separate locations where fires had been intentionally ignited within the residence. Both units in the duplex were rendered uninhabitable, displacing both the woman Chambliss had abused and the family that lived in the unit below.
At the time of the arson, Chambliss was a convicted sex offender with prior convictions for, among other things, first-degree sexual assault of a child, battery, and criminal trespass to a dwelling. He had also previously threatened to commit other arsons in connection with earlier domestic violence incidents.
Mr. Chambliss’s deliberate and violent acts sought to terrorize his intended victim and endangered the lives of the victim’s neighbors and first responders. The U.S. Attorney’s Office is committed to working with our federal, state, and local partners to prosecute these types of violent offenders, and I commend the excellent work of the Milwaukee Police Department, the Milwaukee Fire Department, and ATF in seeking to protect the community and bring Mr. Chambliss to justice.
“Offenders are often willing to use whatever tools available, including arson, to inflict harm onto their victims,” said ATF Special Agent in Charge of the Chicago Field Division Kristen deTineo. “In partnership with the U.S. Attorney’s office, the Milwaukee Police Department and Milwaukee Fire Department, we were able to hold accountable this defendant for committing this arson.”
This matter was investigated by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, the Milwaukee Police Department, the Milwaukee Fire Department and was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Katherine Halopka-Ivery, with assistance from Kevin Clancy, an intern with the United States Attorney’s Office.
