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Fayetteville doctor convicted on two counts of arson

A Fayetteville doctor was sentenced to nine years in prison and fined $20,000 for setting fire to an apartment.
Credit: Adobe Stock

A Fayetteville doctor was sentenced to nine years in prison and fined $20,000 for setting fire to an apartment and a co-worker’s car in 2017.

A jury last week convicted George Shamma in Washington County Circuit Court on two counts of felony arson. He was acquitted on a third count.

Fayetteville police arrested Shamma, 36, in September 2017 for setting fire to a unit at the Mountain Ranch Apartments on North Coral Canyon Loop, according to a police report.

Video surveillance from inside the building showed Shamma walking on the first floor minutes before the fire alarm was activated.

Shamma was wearing latex gloves and carrying a bottle in a plastic sack similar to what firefighters later found on the second floor.

Shamma, who lived on the building’s fourth floor, also was seen carrying a cigarette lighter.

Police later searched Shamma’s apartment and found a similar cigarette lighter and two latex gloves that were the same color as the gloves in the video, according to the report.

Shamma was also linked to a vehicle arson involving a co-worker a few months earlier. Shamma set the fires in an effort to get back at a co-worker and neighbor that Shamma was upset with, according to an arrest report.

Shamma was listed as a family physician in Fayetteville.

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