Friday, May 4, 2007
The jury in the Boardwalk Apartments fire trial continued to watch more than 10 hours of give-and-take, back-and-forth videotaped questioning of Jason Allen Rose on Thursday. Rose’s history of setting fires as a teenager was at the center of interviews in which Rose repeatedly insisted that he did not start the deadly fire. Eventually, Rose admitted that he had set on fire a piece of paper that contained a phone number from a man named “Stan” and that the piece of paper caught wooden railing on fire.
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The taped confession is a key point for Rose’s defense. His attorney, Ron Evans, contends that Rose was coerced into a confession. During opening statements Tuesday, Evans portrayed Rose as a young man brought up in environment of instability.
Rose is accused of starting the Boardwalk Apartments fire, which killed residents Jose Gonzalez, Helen “Yolanda” Riddle and KU student Nicole Bingham. Rose is charged with aggravated arson, three counts of murder and seven counts of aggravated battery. The case originally went to trial in February but was declared a mistrial because of a late-surfacing witness.
The interrogation began Oct. 10, 2005, just two days after the deadly fire and continued for nearly seven hours the following day. In the interrogation, Rose was questioned by Police Detective Troy Squire of the Lawrence Police Department and Christy Weidner of the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Firearms, Tobacco and Explosives. They asked Rose several questions about a series of fires he was accused of setting while growing up in group homes.
The interrogation was taped in a span of two days in separate sessions, just two days after the fire.
Squire and Weidner continued to question Rose through long gaps of silence that frequently lasted several minutes. Squire compared the investigation to “running around in circles.” Rose went back and forth about several key points, including whether or not “Stan” was a real person. Rose continually changed his story and the officials asked some questions more than a dozen times. On multiple occasions, Rose told the investigators that he didn’t know what to say.
“All I want from you is the truth,” Squire told Rose.
Squire told Assistant District Attorney Amy McGowan that he noticed a pattern of behavioral change in Rose during the interview.
“When talking about fires, he seems withdrawn. He does not want to talk about fire,” Squire said. “When we start talking about him leaving that apartment, walking around, it gets harder for him. It gets emotional.”
Rose told the investigators “Stan” visited while he was working at Taco Bell and offered to sell him marijuana. Rose said “Stan” had left a piece of paper containing his phone number with him.
Rose said he had been in a fight with “Stan” after he demanded on the phone that Rose buy marijuana from him. He said it was the piece of paper with “Stan’s” phone number that he set on fire and dropped on a walkway. He told them that he “didn’t mean to hurt anyone.”
The taped confession is a key point for Rose’s defense. His attorney, Ron Evans, contends that Rose was coerced into a confession. During opening statements Tuesday, Evans portrayed Rose as a young man brought up in environment of instability. He said Rose had suffered a childhood of abuse and that the “$64,000 question” in the case was whether he had been treated fairly in questioning.
“They didn’t know what effects their questioning would have on him,” Evans said.
The trial is expected to last up to two weeks, with today being the fifth day. The jury will likely see the conclusion of the interrogation during this morning’s session, which is scheduled to begin at 9 a.m.
Kansan staff writer Erick R. Schmidt can be contacted at eschmidt@kansan.com.
— Edited by Kelly Lanigan
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