Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, May 19, 1995 TAG: 9505190103
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LAURENCE HAMMACK STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
``They just wanted to see something burn,'' Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Joel Branscom said Thursday, after two Roanoke boys, ages 16 and 11, admitted setting the fire.
At a hearing in Roanoke Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court, the 16-year-old pleaded guilty to arson, while his 11-year-old cousin pleaded no contest to a charge of arson as a principal in the second degree.
Judge John B. Ferguson ordered that the 16-year-old be held in a detention facility until he is sentenced in June. The 11-year-old, a small boy who sat quietly in a courtroom chair with his feet dangling several inches above the floor, was allowed to return home with his parents until his sentencing in July.
The youths - who are not being identified because of their ages - have given several conflicting statements about how the April 22 fire was started, and have blamed each other as the instigator.
But both agreed on one thing: Hours before flames shot through the church's bell tower and parishioners gathered to watch in horror, the two already had decided to set fire to one of Gainsboro's most cherished landmarks.
The 16-year-old told police it was the younger boy's idea. "He likes to set fires and watch them burn," he told Detective N.W. Gregory, according to Gregory's testimony.
Just the day before, the 16-year-old said, his cousin had taken a can of gasoline while he was mowing a lawn, poured a line down a street and set it ablaze, "just to watch it burn."
The 11-year-old, however, told Gregory it was the 16-year-old who came to him the day of the fire with two wine bottles filled with gasoline and said, "Let's do it."
As they headed to the church, just several blocks from the 16-year-old's home, they passed Donald Rieger, a visitor at a nursing home who had stepped outside to smoke a cigarette.
"They were nice looking boys, neatly dressed, polite. And each boy was carrying a wine bottle with something in it," Rieger testified. After the fire broke out a short time later, Rieger said, he saw the boys climb out one of the church's windows.
The boys then looked up expectantly at the church's bell tower as the first flames became visible.
"I could see they were getting excited ... and then they took off running down the hill," he testified.
But the 11-year-old returned to watch, and appeared so fascinated by the frenzy of fire trucks and spectators that investigators took his photograph for future reference.
Sgt. A.L. Brown, the first police officer on the scene, later approached the boy and asked him about reports that people had seen him and his cousin carrying bottles to the church.
The 11-year-old responded that the bottles contained his cousin's urine, and offered little information about the fire. The boy told Brown he didn't know his own last name, but he did tell Brown where he went to school and what his teacher's name was - information that investigators used in tracking down the boys.
While it took a week for authorities to bring charges, it was clear from the beginning that the fire was set.
Assistant Fire Marshal Edward Fielder testified that the fire apparently was set on a third-floor balcony that overlooks the sanctuary, and that the bell tower "acted as a chimney, drawing smoke and fire into it."
The boys gave several stories about how the fire started. But officials say the most likely version is one in which they entered the church and poured gasoline from the bottles before the 16-year-old flicked a lighted cigarette to start the fire.
Fielder estimated damage to the building and its contents at about $215,000.
But to residents of the Gainsboro area, who have fond memories of the 97-year-old church even though a new one stands nearby, the damage could not be measured in dollars.
"Do you have any idea what you did?'' Ferguson asked the two boys. "You have destroyed a historic landmark in this community that cannot be replaced."
The boys did not respond. But after the hearing, defense attorney Thomas Wray spoke for the 11-year-old.
"I'm not sure he understands the significance of the church to the community, perhaps because of his age and perhaps because he doesn't live there," Wray said.
Although the church was declared a total loss, city officials have decided to hold off on demolishing the remains until studies can be conducted on whether it is possible to restore the burned-out structure.
Attorney Melvin Hill, who represented the 16-year-old, said his client "was basically the follower" in the incident.
But after hearing that the youth has been charged 15 times before - including once on a charge of bringing a gun to school - Ferguson decided not to release him on bond. At the time of the fire, authorities have said, the 16-year-old was on probation.
Branscom said prosecutors had planned to ask that the 16-year-old be tried as an adult, but agreed to drop those plans in exchange for his guilty plea. As a juvenile, the most severe punishment the youth can receive is incarceration in a state-run "learning center" until his 21st birthday.
by CNB