Joshua Burger sentenced to 15 months to 20 years for arson

Joshua Mark Burger, 30, was sentenced to prison after a Wayne County Circuit Court jury found him guilty of arson of an insured building or structure with the intent to defraud the insurer.
A second charge of third-degree arson was dismissed.
On March 7 he was sentenced by Judge John Paul Cusick to 15 months to 20 years in prison and he began his sentence at once, with credit of three days for time served. He is at the Egeler Reception and Guidance Center in Jackson before he is assigned to a state prison for his term.
His first parole date is June 30, 2019. His earliest release date is June 3, 2019 and maximum date of incarceration is March 3, 2038.
Burger was arrested after his pawn shop business, Pawn Max, burned on April 12, 2017.
Burger, who lived with his wife Alisha in Romulus, maintains his innocence, contending that the fire was a result of the spontaneous combustion of rags wet with linseed oil, which were used in the restoration of an old guitar.
Defense attorneys David Griem and Kristina Joseph reportedly are appealing the verdict and the sentence. They say they felt a critical witness, insurance adjuster Becker, should have been allowed to testify.
Becker’s testimony would have rebutted the Prosecution’s insurance witness’s testimony and arguments made by Prosecution that all damage to Burger’s business would have been automatically reimbursed under his insurance policy.
The attorneys presented a six-page memo to the judge on March 5, two days before sentencing, asking for alternative sentencing.
In a series of statements included in the memo, Burger was described as a “beloved, caring and generous member of a strong family with a wide network of friends and colleagues.”
During Burger’s June 26 preliminary exam before 28th District Court Judge James A. Kandrevas police and fire witnesses testified to finding two sources of ignition of the fire in places that were not near electrical service or anything else that would cause a fire to start.
A Michigan State Police lab found accelerants in a rag and on metal/plastic debris that was a container.
Also in evidence was a DVR recording of Burger repositioning the shop’s surveillance cameras to aim more toward the ceiling away from where the fires started a few minutes later.
Burger reportedly owned Southgate Exchange, Inc., the business, but not the building. He filed an insurance claim on loss of the contents.
He and his father, Chris Whitt, purchased Pawn Max in 2012. The owner of the building said that she enjoyed having Burger as a tenant and would welcome him back in a heartbeat.
In the memo, she said several months before the fire, Burger put an expensive new sign on the outside of the business.
A list of places that received donations from his business was included in the memo.