Curtis Antwan Wortham, a 45-year-old man from Middlesex, North Carolina, has been charged with multiple serious crimes, including second-degree arson, after he allegedly set fire to a car in Waldorf, in July 2022.
The incident began to unfold on the morning of July 8, 2022, when a worker discovered a burned-out car in a remote area of Waldorf. The car, a 2007 Infiniti G35, was completely destroyed by the fire. Investigators from the Maryland State Fire Marshal’s Office were called to the scene and quickly determined that the fire had been set intentionally. The fire started inside the car’s passenger compartment, and there was no sign of an active fire when the car was found, suggesting the fire occurred overnight.
Wortham’s movements were tracked using License Plate Readers (LPRs) and cell phone data. LPRs showed the Infiniti crossing the Harry Nice Bridge, which connects Virginia to Maryland, at around 9:30 p.m. on July 7. The same LPRs also captured a second car, a 2010 Lincoln MKS registered to Jackson, crossing the bridge just one second before the Infiniti. This suggested that the two cars were traveling together. Additionally, data from Wortham’s cell phone placed him in the area of the fire at the time it occurred, and his phone remained in that area for a while before he headed back to North Carolina.
When investigators spoke with Jackson and Wortham, their initial stories didn’t match up. Jackson had reported the Infiniti as stolen to the Nash County Sheriff’s Office in North Carolina on the morning of July 8, 2022, after Wortham told her that he went back to the location where he had left the car but found it missing. However, when questioned separately, Jackson and Wortham gave conflicting details about the car, including whether it had aftermarket wheels. Although their stories aligned later, the discrepancies raised red flags for investigators.
Cell phone records also revealed that Jackson had received several calls from Wortham before she reported the car stolen, and she had a 20-minute phone conversation with Navy Federal Credit Union, the company that held the loan on the Infiniti, before police informed her that the car had been found burned.
As a result of the investigation, Curtis Wortham was charged with second-degree arson, second-degree malicious burning, and malicious burning with intent to defraud. These charges carry severe penalties, including up to 20 years in prison and substantial fines if convicted.
Wortham is scheduled to appear in Charles County District Court for a preliminary hearing on September 23, 2024.
