Trial ordered for man accused of arson, brother’s death

SCRANTON, Pa. (AP) — A man has been ordered to stand trial on charges that he paid his brother to set fire to his northeastern Pennsylvania home as part of an insurance scam, a blaze that claimed his brother’s life.

A Lackawanna County district judge ruled Friday that prosecutors have enough evidence to try 58-year-old Diomedes Ceballos of Scranton on charges including second-degree murder and arson, The (Scranton) Times-Tribune reported.

Authorities said Ceballos, 58, filed an insurance claim of nearly $500,000 after the early morning fire in July that occurred while he was away. He had purchased the home for $80,000, they said.

Police had wanted to interview Aurelio Ceballos, 57, in connection with the blaze, but he was later found dead of serious burns in a bathtub in an apartment.

A friend testified that Aurelio Ceballos told him before he died that his brother agreed to pay $5,000 in insurance money if he burned the house down, so he doused the home in gasoline but caught fire after setting it ablaze.