An Alabama woman has been sentenced to 135 months in federal prison for placing an incendiary device outside an apartment, announced U.S. Attorney Prim F. Escalona and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) Nashville Field Division Acting Special Agent in Charge Jason Stankiewicz.
Kimberly Lanetta Blackmon, 39, of Birmingham, was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Anna M. Manasco. In July 2024, Blackmon pleaded guilty to arson.
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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 Birmingham’s Lakeview District. She then took the elevator to a fourth-floor apartment, believing it belonged to someone romantically linked to her ex-boyfriend.
Upon arriving at 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 apartment door and interior threshold.
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While the apartment’s 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.
The ATF, along with the Birmingham Police Department, investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney W. Lee Gilmer prosecuted the case.
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