New Zealand jury convicts man of murder for boarding house fire that killed 5 fellow tenants

WELLINGTON, New Zealand – A New Zealand jury convicted a man of murder and arson Friday for setting the fire at the boarding house where he lived that killed five fellow tenants.

The jury at the High Court in Wellington reached the verdicts against Esarona David Lologa after less than three days of deliberations , rejecting the defense of insanity argued by Lologa’s lawyers.

Lologa, 50, had been granted name suppression throughout the five-week trial, but the order was lifted when he was convicted.

Prosecutors accepted Lologa had schizophrenia when he twice set fires inside the 92-bed hostel over one night in May 2023. They said he lit the fatal blaze not because of his mental illness but because he wanted to seek a transfer to other accommodation.

The jury rejected an insanity def