East NY Man Who Started Fatal Queens Fire Found Guilty, DA Says

BROOKLYN, NY — An East New York man who started a deadly fire in his great-grandmother's building when he was just 17 years old has been found guilty of manslaughter, prosecutors announced.

Kahj Woods, now 20, was handed a guilty verdict on Friday for the fatal 2018 blaze, which killed an elderly man and disabled man who his great-grandmother cared for in Jamaica, prosecutors said.

Woods faces up to 15 years in prison for the two manslaughter convictions, according to Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz.

“The defendant was convicted of causing the death of two men, whose bodies were discovered following the fire that also displaced six other residents from their homes," Katz said Friday. "A jury weighed all the evidence and rendered a verdict of guilty. The defendant’s fate will be decided by the Court.”

Woods — who is from Fountain Avenue in Brooklyn but had been living with his great-grandmother at the time — was caught on surveillance footage leaving the three-story 150th Street building ten minutes before parishioners in a church on the first floor began to smell smoke, prosectors said.

Firefighters later discovered two 64-year-old David Hawkins and 86-year-old John Wigfall gravely injured on the second floor of the building. prosecutors said.

Both men were rushed to the hospital but later died from their injuries. Hawkins — who was blind and had dementia— had been burned on 70 percent of his body, according to prosecutors.

Woods' guilty verdict comes after a two-week trial in Queens. His sentencing will be held in June, prosecutors said..