A 40-year-old Trenton man was recently charged with setting fire to the Kiss of Ink Tattoo shop in August of this year, Mercer County Prosecutor Angelo J. Onofri reported.
Authorities charged Wendell Johnson with one count of second-degree aggravated arson. Last week, a judge ordered Johnson detained pending trial.
The fire investigation revealed that the fire’s origin was near the shop’s front door. Area surveillance footage shows the defendant taking cardboard left for trash and walking toward the tattoo parlor’s front door, as well as the defendant going to and from the shop with a small red container that appears to be a gas can.
The charges are a result of an investigation by the Trenton Police Department Criminal Investigations Bureau and the Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office Arson Unit.
Despite having been charged, every defendant is presumed innocent until found guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.