Frankford man who set fire to hide fingerprints gets prison

James Pickup burned down a Frankford factory to get rid of fingerprints from a burglary.

But instead of throwing off investigators, the arson led authorities to Pickup - and, on Monday, landed him a federal prison sentence.

U.S. District Judge Darnell Jones II sentenced Pickup to five years behind bars and three years on supervised release - what prosecutors had sought - for orchestrating what raged into a four-alarm fire at 2211 Wakeling St. on Dec. 16, 2012.

The arson at Arco Sales Co. shut down Amtrak and SEPTA service on the Northeast Corridor line for three hours, and left the naval products manufacturer reduced to ruins. Pickup entered a guilty plea in January.

In a sentencing memo, Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeanine Linehan said Pickup, 31, "made choices that jeopardized the lives [of] many, including firefighters and residents of his neighborhood."

Before midnight on Dec. 15, Pickup, brother Keith, and Shawn Workman broke into Arco's offices and made off with bottles of liquor and a desktop computer, prosecutors said. All three dressed in hats and black clothes.

Arco was about 50 yards from the house where they lived in the 5000 block of Worth Street, where Pickup and Workman decided while smoking pot to do "the job" in the first place, prosecutors said.

But soon after the break-in, Pickup learned that his brother had not worn the black latex gloves he had distributed. Pickup and Workman returned to the factory early the next morning, prosecutors said. Pickup went inside, smashed some liquor bottles, and ignited the fire.

Workman, 22, pleaded guilty in July 2014 and was sentenced in January to two years, according to Stephen J. Britt, his attorney. Federal authorities did not charge Keith Pickup.

At the time, Arco was under contract with the Navy to manufacture metal parts for jet propulsion systems on aircraft carriers. The owner had stored liquor bottles there after a friend closed a bar he operated.

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