Man sues, alleging wrongful imprisonment for deadly fire in Pittsburgh's Bloomfield

A man who said he spent nearly 14 years wrongfully imprisoned for a fire that killed three people in Pittsburgh’s Bloomfield neighborhood is suing the prosecutor and two police officers who led the investigation.

Daniel Carnevale, 58, filed the federal lawsuit alleging malicious prosecution, fabrication of evidence and civil conspiracy against Allegheny County Deputy District Attorney Jennifer DiGiovanni and former Pittsburgh police homicide detectives Scott Evans and J.R. Smith, who both now work as investigators for the DA’s office.

Mike Manko, a spokesman for the office, said he could not comment on pending litigation.

The lawsuit accuses the three of fabricating evidence, withholding evidence that might have proved Carnevale’s innocence and orchestrating the use of false testimony from a jailhouse informant during Carnevale’s trial in 2007.

“Mr. Carnevale’s conviction was part of the disturbing resurrection of a tragic fire that occurred some 13 years prior, where there was no reliable evidence that the fire was caused by arson, let alone that it was intentionally set by Mr. Carnevale,” the lawsuit said.

On Jan. 17, 1993, a fire tore through the Columbia Apartments and adjoining Regal Apartments on Taylor Street, killing Anita Emery, 31, Florence Lyczko, 63, and Chris Stahlman, 22.

The federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives ruled 10 days later that the fire was intentionally set with lacquer thinner used as an accelerant.

Carnevale, who was known to frequent the area, was questioned about the blaze and admitted that he had stolen checks from mailboxes at the residence. However, he denied setting the fire. He passed a polygraph test at the time and was not charged.

The lawsuit said the case was reopened by the Pittsburgh police cold case unit in 2005, with Evans and Smith as the lead investigators.

The lawsuit said the detectives never assigned anyone to reinvestigate or reevaluate the cause of the fire or the original finding that it was arson.

Instead, Evans and Scott advertised a possible reward and then fabricated a statement from a witness, who in 1993 had said he saw a person leaving the apartment the night of the fire but couldn’t identify them, the lawsuit said. When reinterviewed, that same witness claimed the person they saw was Carnevale, according to the lawsuit.

Carnevale was charged and following an August 2007 trial that lasted a day and a half, Carnevale was convicted of three counts of second-degree murder, which carries a mandatory penalty of life without parole.

Carnevale continued to deny that he set the fire and filed an appeal through the Pennsylvania Innocence Project and managing attorney Elizabeth DeLosa.

She argued that the ATF’s experts didn’t follow appropriate scientific methods in reaching their conclusions. Specifically, Special Agent William Petraitis testified at trial that the fire had to be arson because he eliminated a natural or accidental cause.

DeLosa’s expert said that was forbidden in the field.

Additionally, DeLosa found a report that had not been previously disclosed calling the original ATF findings that lacquer thinner was present at the scene “meaningless.”

The DA’s office agreed that Carnevale was entitled to a new trial, but when DeLosa provided the additional witness reports that had never been previously turned over, the DA’s office withdrew the charges.

He was released from Allegheny County Jail on March 18, 2020.

In the lawsuit, Carnevale alleges that DiGiovanni offered him a deal to plead guilty in exchange for 3 to 10 years behind bars, but he rejected it.

The lawsuit added that DiGiovanni encouraged Smith and Evans to solicit statements from a jailhouse informant, and that the three of them met with the informant to give him details from the investigation.

“DiGiovanni, Evans and Smith also encouraged Burns to get close to Mr. Carnevale so that they could find other ways to falsify information and evidence against him,” the lawsuit said.

Alec Wright, the attorney representing Carnevale in the lawsuit, did not immediately return a message seeking comment.