On July 10, Malcolm, then 12, pleaded guilty to the juvenile equivalent of manslaughter and arson. According to The New York Times, testimony in Family Court characterized Malcolm as “a profoundly disturbed youngster with a history of setting fires and psychotic episodes.” While it was thought Malcolm had no conscious intention of hurting his grandmother, his invention of the imaginary friend “Sinister Torch” was used against him. He was sentenced to 18 months in a juvenile facility for troubled adolescents. He remained in state custody for almost four years.

In April 2001, he was sent home with an electronic monitoring device, but soon ended up back in detention due to curfew violations. In January 2002, he was arrested in Middletown, New York on robbery and burglary charges. That September, he was sentenced to 3 years in prison. He received parole in May 2006. Most recently, he was sent to Attica for violating parole.

I didn't mean for my grandmother to get hurt. I wasn't thinking anything like that would happen. I thought she would go to the fire escape but she walked through the fire to get to me. I didn't think she would walk through a fire for me. People say to me, "Oh you are the one who burned down your grandmother's house?" But it didn't really happen like that. I've always told the same story. I was coerced to say something else, because I was told it would be better for me. I was told I would go to jail forever. If I changed my story now? That would be major. It would be mind-boggling....