BEVERLY — A jury has cleared a Beverly man of charges that he burned down a rental property he owned in Groveland five years ago.
Anthony Lanzillo, 42, was found not guilty of the arson charge by a Salem Superior Court jury, following a two-week trial and more than 10 hours of deliberations late Wednesday afternoon.
"I think he was relieved," said Lanzillo's lawyer, public defender Lynette Leos. "It was a cloud hanging over his head since 2006."
Three months before the December 2006 fire, the home had been raided by town and animal welfare officials who had learned it was being used as a "puppy mill," an inhumane dog breeding operation, by Lanzillo's tenants.
A total of 32 animals — 28 dachshunds, two cats, a ferret and an iguana — had been rescued from the home the prior September, and the home, littered with animal waste and other debris, was deemed unfit for human habitation.
Leos suggested that Lanzillo had spent time and money to clean up the place and obtain a new occupancy permit and questioned why her client would want to undo all of that effort by burning it down, especially since he owed more money on the mortgage than he would have been paid in insurance.
Prosecutor John Brennan had tried to convince jurors that Lanzillo was the only person with a motive and introduced evidence that a neighbor saw him going in and out of the house in the hour before the fire.
Investigators found traces of gasoline in the home.
At one point during the deliberations, jurors asked Judge Timothy Feeley to define the term "dwelling house," part of the language in the statute under which Lanzillo was charged.
Leos said that despite the acquittal, the allegations "wrecked his life," pointing to Lanzillo's broken marriage and the loss of both of his properties.
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