Arsonist Sentenced For Setting Morris Co. Warehouse Ablaze, Stealing Inventory

MORRIS COUNTY, NJ — An arsonist who attempted to burn down a Boonton warehouse has been sentenced, the Morris County Prosecutor’s Office announced.

On Friday, Davon Fields, 46, of Newark, was sentenced to eight years in prison, just days after pleading guilty to several charges relating to a 2024 warehouse arson case.

On Nov. 3, 2024, at around 8:15 p.m., police and firefighters responded to a two-alarm fire at a commercial warehouse at 95 Fulton Street in Boonton. The Boonton Fire Department, along with mutual aid from nearby towns, extinguished the blaze.

According to investigators, clear signs of “multiple points of origin,” along with a heavy odor of petroleum, indicated that the fire had been intentionally set. Investigators also found a “gasoline-type canister nozzle” on the scene and viewed surveillance footage of two masked individuals entering the warehouse before the fire, according to officials.

Authorities also noted that around $233,000 worth of copper materials had gone missing from the warehouse.

Further investigation indicated that Fields, the warehouse manager, had been in the area of the site on Nov. 1, 2024, and two days later on the night of the fire. Additionally, Fields had visited a scrapyard days before the fire, where he sold “significant quantities of copper,” according to authorities.

He was arrested on Jan. 13, 2025, and charged with aggravated arson, burglary, theft, and criminal mischief. He pleaded guilty on July 2.

Fields’ aggregate eight-year sentence comes with four years of parole ineligibility, prosecutors said.

“This case involved a considerable amount of forensic evidence, both physical and digital, for investigators to review and analyze. I applaud the solid, collaborative efforts of members of the Morris County Prosecutor’s Office, and our partners in the Boonton Police and Morris County Sheriff’s Office, which brought to light the multi-faceted criminal activity at work,” Morris County Prosecutor Robert Carroll said in a statement. “This case went far beyond a straightforward fire, and I want to recognize how their due diligence and teamwork ensured this defendant was prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”