2012 senior class photos
2012 West Carrollton graduation
Home of the Week
Home > Blogs > Dayton Courts: Legal and crime news > Archives > 2009 > July > 29 > Entry
Club Ivy trial: the case goes to the jury
DAYTON — Assistant Montgomery County prosecutors told the jury that James D. Williams III is guilty. So did Williams’ defense attorney.
The difference is what they say he is guilty of.
Williams is accused of setting the Aug. 26 fire at the Club Ivy, 3509 N. Main St., which claimed the life of Robert C. Fabia, 50, who was the chef and was still inside the structure.
Williams, 28, of Trotwood, whose trial in Montgomery County Common Pleas Court started Monday is charged with three counts of aggravated arson, three counts of murder, arson and two counts of possessing criminal tools. Judge Mary Wiseman charged the jury with the case at 4:45 p.m.
The jury deliberated briefly before breaking off for the evening. Deliberations are to resume at 9 a.m. Thursday.
The murder counts are dependent on convictions for aggravated arson. A conviction on the arson count alone would not allow a conviction for murder, though the jury will be allowed to consider an involuntary manslaughter charge. Should the jurors decide that Williams is not guilty on the aggravated arson counts, or if they deadlock on those three charges, they could find him guilty of arson then consider involuntary manslaughter.
Involuntary manslaughter is a first-degree felony, punishable by up to 10 years in prison. Murder is an unclassified offense and is punishable by 15 years to life in prison.
Assistant county prosecutor Sarah Schenck told the jury during her closing argument that Williams is guilty of aggravated arson under three different parts of the statute: harm to person, harm to an occupied structure and agreement for hire. Therefore, he should be convicted of murder, she said.
“Robert Fabia was a hard worker and he worked late,” Schenck said. “And for that, he lost his life.”
Defense attorney Douglas Hess said that Williams was only guilty of arson, and that he had no idea that someone was inside the building, which was set on fire between 1 and 2 a.m.
“What he knows is very important, and he did not know that someone was there,” Hess said. “If you don’t know the structure is occupied, it’s just arson.”
Assistant county prosecutor Sandra Hobson disagreed with Hess’ interpretation, and said the prosecutors did not have to prove that Williams knew it was an occupied structure, just that it was one.
Hobson pointed out that Williams told Dayton homicide detective Dan Hall that he asked the man who hired him to torch the building whether it was occupied after he noticed Fabia’s car parked nearby. Hall also testified that Williams said he stomped his feet on the roof and jiggled wires to check if someone was still inside.
“That’s going through his head,” Hobson said.
Earlier Wednesday, Hall testified Williams told him that he was paid $500 to set the fire, but did not know anyone was inside the bar. Hall identified the man who Williams said hired him to set the fire and accompanied him that night. That man was not been charged in the case.
Williams said that another, unidentified person hired the second man to set the fire, paying that man $1,000. The unidentified person apparently had a financial dispute with the club’s owner, Hall said.
On Tuesday, Dayton fire investigator Victoria Carr testified that she found a ladder next to the club. Her investigation showed that the perpetrator poured gasoline down a roof vent, then set it on fire, she said.
Hall said Wednesday that Williams admitted taking a ladder to the scene, pouring gasoline down a roof vent, then igniting the gasoline.
Permalink | Comments (2) | Post your comment |
Comments
By Laughs @ dumb@sses
July 29, 2009 5:27 PM | Link to this
My friends and I went to school with this idiot….I’m glad he is behind bars now….serves him right.By Joseph Hildenbrand
August 18, 2009 9:12 AM | Link to this
This Man Robert C. Fabia, was a devoted father friend, and one time Partner of mine. The crime committed by this arsonist has taken the life of a Man that could brighten a room every time he would enter it. He set an example of how to live life responsibly, and to remember that Friends and family are two of life’s biggest gifts we have and to enjoy them.