Checkerboard Pizza owner receives stayed sentence for negligent fire charge

The owner of Checkerboard Pizza, accused of intentionally setting his bar and pizza shop on fire, was sentenced in Ramsey County Court Friday.

Tou Mo Cha, 56, received a 12-month prison sentence, which has been stayed for three years of probation. Cha will still have to serve time behind bars, receiving a 30-day sentence at the Ramsey County Correctional Facility, of which he has received 6 days credit for time served.

He will also need to pay $10,136 in restitution and fines.

Cha was convicted of felony negligent fires for property worth $2500 or more, while a second-degree arson charge was dismissed after he entered a guilty plea in November last year.

Cha was arrested on August 8, 2023, after his business, Eastside Checkerboard Pizza in St. Paul, and a separate business, 52 Market & Trading, were found to have been set on fire.

While no one was injured in either fire, it reportedly caused hundreds of thousands of dollars in damage to both businesses.

Authorities later determined both fires had potentially been set intentionally and charged Cha after they reportedly found him entering an apartment above Checkerboard Pizza multiple times before a fire started near that area.