Guy gets 18-20 months for setting fires near two sleeping homeless men

Matthew Cody, 31, of Arlington, received the sentence today following his conviction yesterday on two counts of assault with a dangerous weapon for a 2015 incident on West Street after he got off work at a downtown restaurant.

In a jury-waived trial, Judge Peter Lauriat acquitted Cody of charges of arson and attempted murder.

According to prosecutors, after getting off work at a West Street restaurant around 11 p.m. on Oct. 8, 2015 when he passed a building where two homeless men were sleeping.

A security camera captured Cody’s actions as he retrieved a hardcover book from a nearby recycling bin and lit it on fire next to the slumbering men, prosecutors said. He then walked to a nearby location within sight of the alcove and watched as the flames went out.

Cody can then be seen in security camera images as he set fire to the book a second time, pulled his hood up, and left the area.

This time, the fire spread to the building’s entry and to the cardboard on which the men were sleeping, prosecutors said. Passersby and a man who smelled smoke in a nearby office extinguished it.