A well-known transgender and LGBTQ activist, Nikki Joly, is suspected of having burned down his Michigan house, according to the Detroit Free Press.
The fire, which occurred in Jackson in August 2017 and also caused the deaths of Joly’s five pets, was originally thought to be a hate crime.
Joly — named the 2018 “Citizen of the Year” by the Jackson Citizen Patriot — was no stranger to death threats, which led the FBI to label the fire as a potential hate crime.
As gasoline was discovered in several rooms of Joly’s home, he is now being looked at as the prime suspect. According to authorities, Joly not only purchased gas the day the fire occurred, but traces of gasoline had been found on his clothes.
As a result, in October 2018, Joly was charged with first-degree arson, and in December, he was charged with two counts of animal killing.
Jackson’s director of police and fire services told reporters, “We determined it pretty quickly to be an arson.”
And while authorities are still trying to determine a clear motive for the crime — Joly did not own his home and subsequently, wouldn’t earn any money from a potential insurance claim — members of the community speculate Joly was trying to revive interest in gay rights issues within Jackson and believed the fire to serve his cause. Though those claims haven’t been proven, the people of Jackson did raise $58,000 to assist Joly and his partner following the incident.
Joly’s lawyer, Andrew Abood, on the other hand, explains that the lack of a confirmed motive lends itself to his innocence. He dismissed it all as “a coincidence and a coincidence is not proof beyond reasonable doubt. They are trying to convict on circumstantial evidence and theory when they have no direct evidence in the case.”
The case has been compared to Jussie Smollett’s infamous viral hoax in which he claimed to be attacked in both a racist and homophobic hate crime, only for authorities to later accuse him of having set up the attack.
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