KY man who previously beat person to death charged with lighting hotel room fire
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Curtis Flora, 49, was arrested and charged with first-degree arson for allegedly lighting a hotel room fire.
- The Sportsman Lodge on Winchester Road was occupied by other guests when the fire was allegedly set around 6 a.m.
- Flora has a prior manslaughter conviction from 2013 and was released from custody in October 2025.
A Lexington man who pleaded guilty in 2013 to beating a man to death was arrested Saturday after police say he intentionally set a fire at a motel on Winchester Road.
Curtis Flora, 49, was charged with first-degree arson after police say he lit a fire around 6 a.m. inside his room at the Sportsman Motel, in the 1100 block of Winchester Road, near Loudon Avenue. Several other guests were in the motel at the time, according to court documents. Police did not indicate if anyone was injured, or if the hotel was damaged.
Flora’s arrest comes about six months after he was released from prison following a 2013 guilty plea in the fatal beating of another man.
James Wallace, 32, was a passenger in Flora’s vehicle Dec. 31, 2012, when Wallace shoplifted beer from a gas station on U.S. 27 North in Nicholasville, according to a detective who previously testified in Flora’s case. The shoplifting angered Flora, and Wallace also threatened Flora and his child.
Flora stopped the vehicle on Vince Road, went to the passenger side of the vehicle, and started beating Wallace, the detective testified.
Flora then drove Wallace to Flora’s home in north Lexington, and someone called 911.
Wallace died of a traumatic brain injury two days after the beating. Wallace was initially charged with murder, but he pleaded Sept. 30, 2013, to a lesser charge of first-degree manslaughter and was sentenced to 15 years in prison.
He was released in October 2025, according to court records.
Flora is being held at the Fayette County Detention Center on a $20,000 bond on the arson charge, according to jail records. He is scheduled to be arraigned Monday afternoon in Fayette District Court.
