Gladstone woman sentenced for paying undercover agent to burn down commercial building
A 70-year-old Gladstone woman was sentenced in federal court Tuesday after allegedly hiring an undercover agent to burn down a commercial building in Kansas City, according to federal prosecutors.
Mia Lee Jamison was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Gary A. Fenner to three years in federal prison without parole, followed by three years of supervised release.
Covert meetings with an arsonist
Jamison, who owned Mia Plaza near the corner of 39th Street and Bell Street, previously admitted to hiring an undercover agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives to commit arson. She met the agent at her home on multiple occasions in April 2019, offering to give him $150,000 to burn down her building, which hosted three business at the time.
Bob Wasabi Kitchen, 39th World of Spirits, and Sahara Sheesha Lounge all operated out of Jamison’s building.
Federal investigators recorded audio and video of the meetings between Jamison and the agent, prosecutors say.
According to a release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Jamison told the agent she was going to lose ownership of the building in a civil lawsuit, and it needed to be burned before April 29, 2019. She allegedly told the agent she had a $1.5 million insurance policy on the building, though prosecutors claim the policy was actually worth $2 million.
The 70-year-old then gave the agent a $3,500 deposit and told him she wanted the fire to look accidental. The agent agreed to set the fire between 3 and 5 a.m. to limit potential harm to tenants.
On April 28, 2019, Jamison and the agent met once more, and she told him she had removed all surveillance cameras around the building in preparation for the event.
Then, at 4 a.m. the following morning, investigators met Jamison at her home. When asked if she burned the building down or hired anyone to do so, she denied the allegations. After the confrontation, Jamison was told her building hadn’t actually been burned down, and she was arrested.
On June 2, 2022, Jamison pleaded guilty to two felony charges: soliciting a crime of violence, and making a false statement to investigators of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
‘That building was her baby’
In a previous interview with The Star, Jamison’s ex-husband, attorney Kevin L. Jamison, said the idea of Jamison paying someone to burn her building down seems unexpected.
“That building was her baby,” Kevin Jamison said. “It kind of surprised me; it was like setting fire to your child. That thing was the start of her business enterprise in America.”
Jamison moved from Korea to the United States when she and Kevin Jamison were married in 1977. Proceeds from the store helped put Kevin Jamison through law school.
Jamison bought World of Spirits in 1981 and soon turned it into a success by catering to a clientele that included young physicians from the nearby medical center.
The building caught fire in 1990 and left eight people homeless. Kevin Jamison said the blaze was caused by a man in one of the buildings who was making dentures and pulled too much electricity over a set of electrical wires. The building was insured.
Kevin and Mia Jamison were married about 20 years before the couple divorced in 1996, Kevin Jamison said.
“She’s been (a) hell of a business woman,” he said. “But her mental state may account for her businesses that were going downhill.”
The Star’s Glenn E. Rice and Luke Nozicka contributed to the reporting of this story.
This story was originally published November 15, 2022 at 5:24 PM.