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Arsonist who set blaze at truck dealership loses appeal
ANNIE YAMSON
Special to the Legal News
Published: April 2, 2014
The judgment of the Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas was affirmed recently when the 8th District Court of Appeals ruled that William Crawley was properly convicted of arson after he set fire to a freight truck.
Crawley was indicted on Aug. 17, 2012 on two counts of aggravated arson and 21 counts of arson.
A jury found him guilty on all counts and he was sentenced to an aggregate prison term of 16 years.
The incident leading to Crawley’s arrest took place on Aug. 6, 2012 at Valley Freightliner, a new truck dealership located in Brook Park, Ohio where Crawley was employed as a “garage man.”
Case summary stated that, on the morning of the fire, Crawley arrived at work at approximately 5:30 a.m. for his 7 a.m. shift and he waited in the driveway until his supervisor, Dan Rogers, arrived.
Rogers unlocked the gate and permitted Crawley on the premises before he entered the service office to prepare for the day’s work while Crawley smoked a cigarette outside.
Shortly after he entered the office, Rogers heard Crawley yelling his name from the shop. Crawley was upset and said that one of the trucks in Bay 2 was on fire.
Rogers walked to Bay 2, saw a fire on top of the hood of one of the trucks and began to walk toward it.
During trial, he testified that he was about 10 feet away from the truck when Crawley yelled, “Get out of there before it explodes.”
Rogers turned to get a fire extinguisher but the truck was quickly engulfed in flames. He called 911 at 5:47 a.m.
While the fire department was on its way, Rogers walked through the shop and opened the bay doors in order to allow the firefighters easier access to the flames.
He also walked inside to get his keys and told the trial court that, by that time, the shop was filled with thick, black smoke.
When police arrived, they heard explosions coming from inside.
Rogers testified that there were several flammable materials in the building at the time, including fuel, starter fluid and acetylene torches.
Several firefighters testified that they could see a thick plume of black smoke from several miles away on their way to the scene.
Lt. David McCarthy of the Brook Park fire department was one of the first responders; he testified the blaze was a three-alarm fire and that at least three dozen firefighters responded to the scene.
Along with the Brook Park squad, six other fire departments arrived and one firefighter testified that it was one of the largest fires ever in the city of Brook Park.
Initially, Crawley denied any involvement. He told investigating officers four different versions of the events leading up to the fire until he finally admitted to pouring gas from a red container onto the front seat of the truck and igniting it with his lighter.
He stated that he committed the arson because “for the last several years, I have been racially discriminated against by Jeff B.,” the director of the dealership in Brook Park.
An empty red gas can was recovered from the scene along with Crawley’s blue lighter that he threw into a trash can after setting the flame.
Jeffrey Britenbucher, the fixed operations manager at Valley Freightliner, was responsible for assessing and documenting the damage caused by the arson.
He prepared a list of the personal property lost by technicians employed by the company and valued that loss at almost $404,000.
Britenbucher also testified that the total loss of equipment and tools owned by Valley Freightliner was valued at $263,000.
Upon appeal, Crawley challenged the trial court’s admission of Britenbucher’s testimony, alleging that it violated the Sixth Amendment’s Confrontation Clause.
Judge Tim McCormack, writing on behalf of the 8th District’s three-judge appellate panel, stated that Britenbucher’s job was to keep track of the parts and service departments and all matters involving the building that housed Valley Freightliner.
“He participated directly in the estimation of losses sustained by Valley Freightliner, the owners of the vehicles located on the property and the 13 diesel technicians who lost their tools and toolboxes in the fire,” wrote Judge McCormack.
In the course of evaluating the damage, itemized lists were prepared and submitted to the insurance company in order to process the claims.
“We can presume that such records were trustworthy because they were prepared by someone with competent knowledge of the facts recorded and whose job included preparing such records in the regular course of business,” wrote Judge McCormack. “Moreover, there is nothing in the record to indicate that the information prepared by Britenbucher for Valley Freightliner’s insurance company was inaccurate or untrustworthy.”
The appellate panel proceeded to overrule Crawley’s claims that there was insufficient evidence to support a conviction of aggravated arson.
According to Crawley, he never created a “substantial risk of serious physical harm to Dan Rogers.”
The court of appeals found that Rogers was definitely put in harm’s way.
It held that Rogers got within 10 feet of a dangerous fire that caused explosions and filled the dealership with thick, black smoke within a matter of minutes.
“We find that any rational trier of fact could conclude that there was sufficient evidence to demonstrate that Crawley knowingly created a substantial risk of serious physical harm to Dan Rogers,” wrote Judge McCormack.
The judgment of the Cuyahoga County court was ultimately affirmed but the case was remanded for the court to consider whether to merge two of the 23 arson counts.
Judges Mary Boyle and Eileen T. Gallagher concurred.
The case is cited State v. Crawley, 2014-Ohio-921.
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