A jury has convicted a man of murder for setting a fire at the New Zealand boarding house where he lived that killed five fellow tenants. Esarona David Lologa was also found guilty of arson for the 2023 blaze. The jury at the High Court in Wellington reached the verdicts after less than three days of deliberations. Jurors rejected a defense of insanity argued by Lologa’s lawyers. The five men who died included older and vulnerable people and their deaths sparked outrage over the state of boarding houses in New Zealand. Lologa will be sentenced in November. Murder carries a mandatory life sentence.
