Prosecutors alleged that the fire was set by a man whose ex-girlfriend dated someone who lived in the building, eventually convicting James Carver of second-degree murder and arson.
The fire occurred in the Elliott Chambers, an 80-year-old, three-story wooden frame building that had 34 rooms on the top two floors and housed businesses on the first.
[1] The rooming house was located on the corner of Rantoul and Elliott Streets in downtown Beverly and catered to deinstitutionalized mental patients, intellectually disabled people, substance abusers, elderly, transients, and other low-income individuals, many of whom had been placed there by the Massachusetts Department of Mental Health or another human services agency.
[6] On July 5, 1984, state Public Safety Secretary Charles V. Barry announced that a preliminary investigation indicated the cause of the fire to be arson.
[7][4] According to investigators, the fire was caused by gasoline-soaked newspapers that had been lit in an alcove adjacent to the front entrance to the rooming house.
[8] The prime suspect in the arson was James Carver, a 20-year-old part-time pizza cook and taxi driver whose ex-girlfriend was dating someone who was staying in the building.
The investigation stalled until late 1987, when the Essex County district attorney's office received information that Carver had confessed to a female friend.
On April 21, 1988, a witness identified Carver in a police lineup as the man he saw near the Elliott Chambers shortly before the fire.
[10] On March 24, Judge Peter F. Brady declared a mistrial based on a motion from Carver's attorney, Dennis F. Jackson, who contended that the prosecution had violated discovery procedures by not providing him with an incriminating statement a witness had given to police until the trial was already underway.
District Attorney Kevin M. Burke called Brady's decision "inappropriate" and "unjust" and declared that his office would "vigorously reprosecute" the case.
[13] In 2020, Carver, who has a history of cardiovascular disease, skin cancer, and depression, uses a wheelchair due to dizziness, vertigo, tremors and seizures he has suffered from since brain surgery, and has been diagnosed with, but is refusing treatment for, prostate cancer, sought a medical parole on the grounds that he was "highly likely" to become incapacitated if he contracted COVID-19.
[2] Legislators and local officials called for a law to require sprinklers and other fire safety systems in rooming houses.
[19] However, in 1986 the legislature did pass a bill that gave local governments the option to require automatic sprinklers in buildings occupied by six or more unrelated people.