Walter Forbes

On July 12, 1982, a man died in a fire that was set in Jackson, Michigan. Dennis Hall was killed in an apparent arson at his apartment. Prior to his death, he was involved in an altercation at a bar which was broken up by college student Walter Forbes. The day after the bar fight, Hall shot Forbes requiring a few months to recover. As Hall and Forbes had been involved in two recent altercations, police arrested Forbes for Hall’s death. Forbes would be convicted in court for the murder and arson in May 1983 and he was sentenced to life in prison for first degree murder.

In 2017, a witness who had claimed she had seen Forbes and two others burn down the apartment recanted her statement. She claimed to a judge in 2020 that she had been threatened to do so by two men from her neighborhood who warned they would harm her and her family if she failed to testify against the three. Of them, only Forbes had been convicted due to discrepancies in her testimony. In addition to other evidence being uncovered, Forbes’ conviction was overturned and he was freed in November 2020.

It is now believed that the owner of the apartment, David Jones, was behind the arson as part of an insurance fraud scheme. Jones received a significant payout for the arson that damaged the building and killed Hall. Eight years later, Jones would be convicted of a different insurance fraud scheme involving arson where another person died. Two people confessed to conspiracy in that arson and testified against Jones in court.