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: Defendant admitted setting fire, according to poilce; closing arguments later Wednesday
DAYTON — Closing arguments in the trial of James D. Williams III, charged with setting a bar fire that killed a man, will be Wednesday afternoon, July 29.
Assistant Montgomery County prosecutors rested just before noon, after presenting witnesses for three days. The defense rested immediately afterward without presenting any witnesses.
Williams, 28, is on trial for three counts of aggravated arson, three counts of murder and two counts of possession of criminal tools.
The Aug. 26 fire at the Club Ivy, 3509 N. Main St., claimed the life of Robert C. Fabia, 50, who was the chef. Fabia, who often slept there on a couch in the back, was found dead in the kitchen area.
Earlier Wednesday, Dayton homicide Detective Dan Hall testified that investigators did not have any suspects in the fire until Williams’ girlfriend called police on Oct. 2 and gave them his name.
Hall said he interviewed Williams in the Montgomery County Jail, and Williams told him that he was paid $500 to set the fire, but did not know anyone was inside the bar.
“He told me that he felt like he was set up,” Hall said. “He did cry at times, several times.”
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, Williams’ ex-girlfriend Valerie Heyes, the woman Hall said turned him in, testified that Williams asked her to watch the news the morning after the fire, though he did not tell her what to watch for. When Heyes told him that someone had died in the fire, Williams appeared surprised and became upset, Heyes said.
Also 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 (0) | Post your comment |
Comments