Client was
suspected of setting five fires at St. Joe’s Hall on the
campus os St. Joseph’s College. The first fire was set on
Friday, March 31, 2000 in the early afternoon. One more was set
on April 1, 2000. Yet another was set early on April 2, 2000 and
3:00 a.m. April 3, 2000. The Sunday night fire was set in the
bathroom across from her room. The Monday morning fire was set
in her room and caused over $300,000.00 in property damage.
The State’s case was based on the following: (1.) Client’s
alleged involvement in the three uncharged arsons (through a Motion
in Limine, the defense had these excluded. The prior “bad
acts” were not sufficiently linked to her to allow them
into evidence). (2.) Client’s alleged motive to set and
discover fires to reverse a decision to not re-hire her as a Residential
Advisor (our investigator discovered that a key State’s
witness on motive did re-hire client by verbal commitment on the
morning of March 31, 2000; the State found this out on our cross-examination
of their key motive witness). (3.) Client’s error in time
references during police interrogation after the big fire (the
time reference errors were readily accounted for because she was
looking at clocks that had not “sprung forward” for
daylight savings time).
Client’s “relative” times were accurate (45
minutes from the time she left her room to the time of the fire
alarm). The state never understood that her room clock was still
an hour behind as was the clock in the administration office in
which she was interrogated. Thus, the State thought she had a
full hour of unaccounted for time without any alibi. The plausibility
of her mistake was apparent to all Jurors at the outset of our
opening statement (on Monday morning at 9:30 a.m.) when we pointed
to the court clock which read . . . 10:30 a.m.
The corrected time, coupled with testimony from that State’s
witnesses showed that Client had neither the motive, nor the opportunity
to set the Monday morning fire. Time line evidence (T.V listing,
alarm records, phone records etc.) also showed that Client had
neither motive, nor the opportunity to set the Sunday night fire.
