Fire investigators: Intentional human act, accelerant caused fire that killed Coonrod children WATCH THE VIDEO
Lead Summary
By
Brandy Chandler-brandychandler@gmail.com
Curious children playing with fire, or an intentional act to set a fire, according to expert testimony, are the two possible causes of the March 7 fire that killed Thomas and Stephen Coonrod.
While the state has called witnesses who testified Wesley Coonrod stood on the sidewalk outside his apartment asking for cigarettes as his 3- and 4-year-old sons were screaming, trapped, as fire burned around them, the defense called witnesses who testified they saw a grieving father cradling the lifeless bodies of his babies, asking them to "come home to Daddy."
The State of Ohio rested Tuesday in the presentation of its capital murder case against Coonrod in Highland County Common Pleas Court. The jury was removed from the court room at approximately 2:50 p.m. while the defense and state addressed matters before Judge Rocky Coss. Defense attorney William Mooney asked that the court dismiss the charges of aggravated murder with death penalty specifications and aggravated arson, saying the state had not met its burden of proof.
Coonrod could face the death penalty if convicted of the two charges of aggravated murder. He is also charged with two counts of murder, unclassified felonies; and two counts of child endangering, felonies of the third degree.
Highland County Prosecutor Jim Grandey said he felt the state has "met its burden" and presented "sufficient evidence" to substantiate that Coonrod "did in fact set the fire."
Coss overruled Mooney's motion.
Tuesday morning, the prosecution called lead fire investigator Trace Lawless from the Ohio State Fire Marshal's Office to testify. Lawless said he concluded the fire at 150 Lafayette Street that killed Thomas and Stephen Coonrod was caused by an intentional human act.
Lawless testified that he believed there was a pour pattern that indicated there was a liquid accelerant in the hallway of the apartment - the fire's point of origin. Lawless said the pattern trails to the living room where a blue Bic cigarette lighter was found.
Laboratory tests were conducted, but they did not confirm the presence of an accelerant, he said. Lawless testified that he found an empty can of charcoal lighter fluid in the yard outside of Coonrod's home.
Kevin Keaton, a fire investigation expert who testified Monday on behalf of the defense, told the jurors that he found the cause of the fire to be "undetermined" and that it had either been set by "an intentional human act" or by one of the children.
Lawless testified that there were several factors that led him to believe it was not a fire set by a juvenile, which included the fact that juvenile fire-setters, between the ages of 2 and 6, usually do it out of curiosity. Lawless said Thomas and Stephen were too young to deliberately pour an accelerant and light it on fire. Additionally, that age group of fire-setters do it in secret, and would not have done it outside their father's bedroom, he said.
During his testimony, Lawless presented dozens of pictures he took through the course of his investigation of 150 A Lafayette Street. He testified that areas of the apartment that sustained fire damage, not just smoke damage, shows the fire started as a low-level burn. At the point of origin of the fire, in the hallway, Lawless said there were no materials or "fuel loads" that could sustain a fire on its own, an indication an accelerant had to be used. Patterns on the flooring show that the fire burned from the entrance to the hallway, across the hall and to the bathroom where flooring changes from carpet to vinyl. Lawless said that pattern is also consistent with an accelerant.
Among the pictures Lawless presented were a series of photos depicting the inside of the bedroom closet where Thomas and Stephen were found.
The walls of the closet appear white, which Lawless said was an indication the door was shut during the time of the fire. Black handprints and footprints could be seen around the floorboards, and on the wall and inside door of the closet.
Lawless said on the closet door, near where the handle would have been on the outside of the door, "are small handprints in soot, (left) as the children attempted to egress, or exit the closet."
The defense objected to that statement, and Coss sustained it, having the statement stricken from the record. Lawless then testified that as part of the investigation, it is necessary to document what the victims and survivors of fire do during the course of the fire.
"They were trying to find a way out of the hot, smoky environment they were confronted with," Lawless said.
Lawless testified that inside the closet where the children were found was a disconnected smoke alarm. There were three areas in the apartment where smoke alarms were supposed to be hard-wired into the electrical system. Lawless said that smoke alarm was the only one that was found, and no evidence in the debris left by the fire indicated there were other smoke alarms.
After his investigation at the scene was concluded, Lawless said he approached Coonrod for an interview. He located the defendant at a sibling's house, where he was drinking a beer, Lawless testified.
Coonrod was interviewed at the Highland County Justice Center by Lawless and Sgt. J.D. Dunn of the Greenfield Police Department. Coonrod was Mirandized, Lawless said, and he waived his right to counsel. Coonrod explained, according to Lawless, that he went to sleep in the back bedroom of the apartment late on March 6. He awoke to the fire and attempted to exit the bedroom and burned his hand on the doorknob. He then exited the bedroom through the back window. It was unclear whether he opened or broke through the window.
Lawless said that Coonrod had an injury on his left hand, but in his opinion it was not consistent with a contact burn from a metal object. Rather, he said, it appeared to be a blistered burn that could have been sustained from radiant heat.
Investigation at the scene indicated that the window of the back bedroom was not open during the time of the fire, Lawless said. Photos show that only smoke damage was around the window, and had it been opened during the fire, there would have been fire damage, he said. Lawless testified that there was no indication the window was broken from the outside.
The window was not taken into evidence and was not located at the scene when Keaton went to examine it.
On cross-examination, defense attorney Jerry McHenry questioned Lawless on his educational experience regarding juvenile fire-setters. McHenry also questioned Lawless regarding the accelerant, and carpet and carpet padding. Lawless said that he sent samples of the carpet that had melted onto the knees of firefighters turnout gear for analyses, and that no accelerant was found on those samples.
Lawless testified that it is not unusual for accelerant to not be found at a scene where it is suspected, because accelerant can burn away completely, depending on the type and amount used.
Keaton had testified that carpet samples, combined with the carpet padding could sustain a fire, in laboratory testing.
The state also called Jim Hunter, a fire investigator for the insurance company for the property owner of the apartments. Hunter testified regarding his investigation process and said that he concluded the fire was set by an intentional human act, that there was evidence to show there was an accelerant used, and at one point referred to it as "arson." Hunter's investigation did not find accelerant at the scene.
On cross-examination, Hunter said that he did not have tests conducted on the carpet padding. However, he testified that there were areas where the carpet was "protected" or not burned in the area the fire started. Hunter said that if the carpet padding was combustible and had sustained a burn on its own, the carpet would have been burned throughout and there would not be "protected" areas.
Mooney asked Hunter if he ever really considered more than one hypothesis as to what could have caused the fire. Hunter said that everything was a possibility, and he ruled everything out from electrical issues to juveniles, until he reached his conclusion.
When the defense continued with the presentation of its case, the siblings of Wesley Coonrod testified how in the moments after his two sons were pronounced dead, he hugged their lifeless bodies and said he wished he were dead too.
Cathy Jo Smith, Coonrod's sister, said that when she was told Thomas and Stephen had died as a result of the fire, she collapsed to the floor. She described how she saw her brother begin to mourn his sons.
"He was holding Thomas, begging him to come back," Smith said. "He started telling him to wake up, telling him to breathe and 'Come back to Daddy, come home to Daddy,' and he tried to breathe in his mouth. He was very upset. He said he didn't want to live, he wanted to be with his babies."
Coonrod's siblings testified that when they arrived at Adena Greenfield Area Medical Center just after 1 a.m., they witnessed their brother lying on the ground in the fetal position in front of the emergency room door, wearing only his underwear, and a blanket.
Smith said that Coonrod told them the doctors and nurses "let" his kids die and he "didn't understand" why they had cancelled the CareFlight emergency helicopter.
As Smith described the events that happened at the hospital, Coonrod sobbed in the courtroom, wiping tears from his face with his shirtsleeves.
John Coonrod, Wesley's younger brother, testified that heard the defendant ask if he could have the gun carried by Greenfield Police Officer J.D. Dunn, because he wanted to go with his boys.
Coonrod was taken to Smith's house from the hospital, where family members attempted to get him to shower and tried to find him clothes. Smith testified that he grew worse in the hours after they left the hospital, saying "You couldn't do anything with him" and that he was very upset and vomiting.
Howard Coonrod, Wesley's brother, also testified regarding his demeanor at the hospital, as did friends and family members Rusty Smith, Peggy Penwell, Wendy Birchfield, and Donald Scott Pearson.
Pearson, who was able to testify upon a court order allowing him to be brought from the Pickaway Correctional Institute, where he is serving time on domestic violence and drug charges, said that on March 5 he was at Coonrod's apartment at 150 Lafayette Street. Pearson said they consumed more than a case of beer, but that on March 6, he did not observe Coonrod drinking.
Pearson said that he saw Lawless on March 7 when Lawless was attempting to locate Coonrod for questioning. Pearson said that he attempted to give Lawless his phone number because he thought information he had could be helpful, but Lawless refused his phone number.
Cathy Smith testified that Pearson was concerned about an "odor" he detected coming from apartment B at 150 Lafayette St.
Smith also testified that on one occasion, approximately a month before the fire that killed Thomas and Stephen, she found Thomas playing with a cigarette lighter. When she took it away from him, Smith said that Thomas insisted that the lighter was his. Smith's husband, Rusty, testified that on one occasion he witnessed Thomas throw pieces of paper into a heating source at his home.
Rusty Smith described "Tommy" as "a little daredevil" and that whenever he was around fires where the family burned trash, he wasn't afraid to reach into the flames to pull out burning pieces of wood.
On cross-examination, assistant Highland County Prosecutors Anneka Collins and David Henry questioned the defense's witnesses regarding whether or not they were at 150 Lafayette Street during the time of the fire. They said they were not, and therefore could not testify as to Coonrod's behavior during the fire.
Witnesses who were present at the scene of the fire have testified that they smelled a strong odor of alcohol coming from Coonrod and that he did not try to assist neighbors and bystanders as they attempted to break into the apartment to save the screaming children.
The defense has approximately eight witnesses left to call to the stand, Mooney said Tuesday. The defense anticipates calling rebuttal witnesses. After that, the jury must hear instructions regarding matters of law and the deliberation process. After that, they will hear closing arguments. Coss told jurors he anticipated deliberations to begin on Thursday. Once deliberations begin, the jury will be sequestered.
Curious children playing with fire, or an intentional act to set a fire, according to expert testimony, are the two possible causes of the March 7 fire that killed Thomas and Stephen Coonrod.
While the state has called witnesses who testified Wesley Coonrod stood on the sidewalk outside his apartment asking for cigarettes as his 3- and 4-year-old sons were screaming, trapped, as fire burned around them, the defense called witnesses who testified they saw a grieving father cradling the lifeless bodies of his babies, asking them to "come home to Daddy."
The State of Ohio rested Tuesday in the presentation of its capital murder case against Coonrod in Highland County Common Pleas Court. The jury was removed from the court room at approximately 2:50 p.m. while the defense and state addressed matters before Judge Rocky Coss. Defense attorney William Mooney asked that the court dismiss the charges of aggravated murder with death penalty specifications and aggravated arson, saying the state had not met its burden of proof.
Coonrod could face the death penalty if convicted of the two charges of aggravated murder. He is also charged with two counts of murder, unclassified felonies; and two counts of child endangering, felonies of the third degree.
Highland County Prosecutor Jim Grandey said he felt the state has "met its burden" and presented "sufficient evidence" to substantiate that Coonrod "did in fact set the fire."
Coss overruled Mooney's motion.
Tuesday morning, the prosecution called lead fire investigator Trace Lawless from the Ohio State Fire Marshal's Office to testify. Lawless said he concluded the fire at 150 Lafayette Street that killed Thomas and Stephen Coonrod was caused by an intentional human act.
Lawless testified that he believed there was a pour pattern that indicated there was a liquid accelerant in the hallway of the apartment - the fire's point of origin. Lawless said the pattern trails to the living room where a blue Bic cigarette lighter was found.
Laboratory tests were conducted, but they did not confirm the presence of an accelerant, he said. Lawless testified that he found an empty can of charcoal lighter fluid in the yard outside of Coonrod's home.
Kevin Keaton, a fire investigation expert who testified Monday on behalf of the defense, told the jurors that he found the cause of the fire to be "undetermined" and that it had either been set by "an intentional human act" or by one of the children.
Lawless testified that there were several factors that led him to believe it was not a fire set by a juvenile, which included the fact that juvenile fire-setters, between the ages of 2 and 6, usually do it out of curiosity. Lawless said Thomas and Stephen were too young to deliberately pour an accelerant and light it on fire. Additionally, that age group of fire-setters do it in secret, and would not have done it outside their father's bedroom, he said.
During his testimony, Lawless presented dozens of pictures he took through the course of his investigation of 150 A Lafayette Street. He testified that areas of the apartment that sustained fire damage, not just smoke damage, shows the fire started as a low-level burn. At the point of origin of the fire, in the hallway, Lawless said there were no materials or "fuel loads" that could sustain a fire on its own, an indication an accelerant had to be used. Patterns on the flooring show that the fire burned from the entrance to the hallway, across the hall and to the bathroom where flooring changes from carpet to vinyl. Lawless said that pattern is also consistent with an accelerant.
Among the pictures Lawless presented were a series of photos depicting the inside of the bedroom closet where Thomas and Stephen were found.
The walls of the closet appear white, which Lawless said was an indication the door was shut during the time of the fire. Black handprints and footprints could be seen around the floorboards, and on the wall and inside door of the closet.
Lawless said on the closet door, near where the handle would have been on the outside of the door, "are small handprints in soot, (left) as the children attempted to egress, or exit the closet."
The defense objected to that statement, and Coss sustained it, having the statement stricken from the record. Lawless then testified that as part of the investigation, it is necessary to document what the victims and survivors of fire do during the course of the fire.
"They were trying to find a way out of the hot, smoky environment they were confronted with," Lawless said.
Lawless testified that inside the closet where the children were found was a disconnected smoke alarm. There were three areas in the apartment where smoke alarms were supposed to be hard-wired into the electrical system. Lawless said that smoke alarm was the only one that was found, and no evidence in the debris left by the fire indicated there were other smoke alarms.
After his investigation at the scene was concluded, Lawless said he approached Coonrod for an interview. He located the defendant at a sibling's house, where he was drinking a beer, Lawless testified.
Coonrod was interviewed at the Highland County Justice Center by Lawless and Sgt. J.D. Dunn of the Greenfield Police Department. Coonrod was Mirandized, Lawless said, and he waived his right to counsel. Coonrod explained, according to Lawless, that he went to sleep in the back bedroom of the apartment late on March 6. He awoke to the fire and attempted to exit the bedroom and burned his hand on the doorknob. He then exited the bedroom through the back window. It was unclear whether he opened or broke through the window.
Lawless said that Coonrod had an injury on his left hand, but in his opinion it was not consistent with a contact burn from a metal object. Rather, he said, it appeared to be a blistered burn that could have been sustained from radiant heat.
Investigation at the scene indicated that the window of the back bedroom was not open during the time of the fire, Lawless said. Photos show that only smoke damage was around the window, and had it been opened during the fire, there would have been fire damage, he said. Lawless testified that there was no indication the window was broken from the outside.
The window was not taken into evidence and was not located at the scene when Keaton went to examine it.
On cross-examination, defense attorney Jerry McHenry questioned Lawless on his educational experience regarding juvenile fire-setters. McHenry also questioned Lawless regarding the accelerant, and carpet and carpet padding. Lawless said that he sent samples of the carpet that had melted onto the knees of firefighters turnout gear for analyses, and that no accelerant was found on those samples.
Lawless testified that it is not unusual for accelerant to not be found at a scene where it is suspected, because accelerant can burn away completely, depending on the type and amount used.
Keaton had testified that carpet samples, combined with the carpet padding could sustain a fire, in laboratory testing.
The state also called Jim Hunter, a fire investigator for the insurance company for the property owner of the apartments. Hunter testified regarding his investigation process and said that he concluded the fire was set by an intentional human act, that there was evidence to show there was an accelerant used, and at one point referred to it as "arson." Hunter's investigation did not find accelerant at the scene.
On cross-examination, Hunter said that he did not have tests conducted on the carpet padding. However, he testified that there were areas where the carpet was "protected" or not burned in the area the fire started. Hunter said that if the carpet padding was combustible and had sustained a burn on its own, the carpet would have been burned throughout and there would not be "protected" areas.
Mooney asked Hunter if he ever really considered more than one hypothesis as to what could have caused the fire. Hunter said that everything was a possibility, and he ruled everything out from electrical issues to juveniles, until he reached his conclusion.
When the defense continued with the presentation of its case, the siblings of Wesley Coonrod testified how in the moments after his two sons were pronounced dead, he hugged their lifeless bodies and said he wished he were dead too.
Cathy Jo Smith, Coonrod's sister, said that when she was told Thomas and Stephen had died as a result of the fire, she collapsed to the floor. She described how she saw her brother begin to mourn his sons.
"He was holding Thomas, begging him to come back," Smith said. "He started telling him to wake up, telling him to breathe and 'Come back to Daddy, come home to Daddy,' and he tried to breathe in his mouth. He was very upset. He said he didn't want to live, he wanted to be with his babies."
Coonrod's siblings testified that when they arrived at Adena Greenfield Area Medical Center just after 1 a.m., they witnessed their brother lying on the ground in the fetal position in front of the emergency room door, wearing only his underwear, and a blanket.
Smith said that Coonrod told them the doctors and nurses "let" his kids die and he "didn't understand" why they had cancelled the CareFlight emergency helicopter.
As Smith described the events that happened at the hospital, Coonrod sobbed in the courtroom, wiping tears from his face with his shirtsleeves.
John Coonrod, Wesley's younger brother, testified that heard the defendant ask if he could have the gun carried by Greenfield Police Officer J.D. Dunn, because he wanted to go with his boys.
Coonrod was taken to Smith's house from the hospital, where family members attempted to get him to shower and tried to find him clothes. Smith testified that he grew worse in the hours after they left the hospital, saying "You couldn't do anything with him" and that he was very upset and vomiting.
Howard Coonrod, Wesley's brother, also testified regarding his demeanor at the hospital, as did friends and family members Rusty Smith, Peggy Penwell, Wendy Birchfield, and Donald Scott Pearson.
Pearson, who was able to testify upon a court order allowing him to be brought from the Pickaway Correctional Institute, where he is serving time on domestic violence and drug charges, said that on March 5 he was at Coonrod's apartment at 150 Lafayette Street. Pearson said they consumed more than a case of beer, but that on March 6, he did not observe Coonrod drinking.
Pearson said that he saw Lawless on March 7 when Lawless was attempting to locate Coonrod for questioning. Pearson said that he attempted to give Lawless his phone number because he thought information he had could be helpful, but Lawless refused his phone number.
Cathy Smith testified that Pearson was concerned about an "odor" he detected coming from apartment B at 150 Lafayette St.
Smith also testified that on one occasion, approximately a month before the fire that killed Thomas and Stephen, she found Thomas playing with a cigarette lighter. When she took it away from him, Smith said that Thomas insisted that the lighter was his. Smith's husband, Rusty, testified that on one occasion he witnessed Thomas throw pieces of paper into a heating source at his home.
Rusty Smith described "Tommy" as "a little daredevil" and that whenever he was around fires where the family burned trash, he wasn't afraid to reach into the flames to pull out burning pieces of wood.
On cross-examination, assistant Highland County Prosecutors Anneka Collins and David Henry questioned the defense's witnesses regarding whether or not they were at 150 Lafayette Street during the time of the fire. They said they were not, and therefore could not testify as to Coonrod's behavior during the fire.
Witnesses who were present at the scene of the fire have testified that they smelled a strong odor of alcohol coming from Coonrod and that he did not try to assist neighbors and bystanders as they attempted to break into the apartment to save the screaming children.
The defense has approximately eight witnesses left to call to the stand, Mooney said Tuesday. The defense anticipates calling rebuttal witnesses. After that, the jury must hear instructions regarding matters of law and the deliberation process. After that, they will hear closing arguments. Coss told jurors he anticipated deliberations to begin on Thursday. Once deliberations begin, the jury will be sequestered.
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