Tuesday, May 8, 2007
Jason Allen Rose told the jury Monday that his 10-hour taped interrogation and confession was full of lies.
“I thought if it was something they would believe, they would leave me alone,” Rose said.
The version of the story Rose shared Monday was different from the one he told investigators in the days following the Boardwalk Apartments fire, which killed three people.
During the taped interrogation, Rose routinely changed details in his version of what happened that night. There had originally been a character named “Stan” who Rose said tried to sell him marijuana; Rose said he had been in the walkway multiple times before the fire; he said he set on fire a box of photographs his father had sent him that he set on fire. Monday, Rose told assistant district attorney Amy McGowan that those were all lies.
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During the taped interrogation, Rose routinely changed details in his version of what happened that night.
McGowan moved quickly through a list of confessions Rose had made on the tape, asking him to say which were truth and which were lies. The questioning moved at a rapid pace, with Rose answering quickly with “truth” or “lie” statements. Rose was asked about a series of reported incidents he had been accused of while growing up in group homes.
“You said, ‘I have a problem with fires,’ Jason,” McGowan said. “Truth, or a lie?”
“That was a lie,” Rose said.
Rose is accused of starting the October 2005 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. That witness, 21-year-old Emily Robinson, also took the stand in the trial’s morning session.
Rose was called to the stand by his attorney, Ron Evans, and answered questions for just more than half an hour. Rose told Evans he did not think he was a suspect when the police came to talk to him at work, when he was taken to a police unit for questioning. Evans asked Rose a closing question.
“Finally, look at this jury. Did you set this fire?” Evans asked.
“No,” Rose said.
Rose was allowed to step off the stand just before 3 p.m. Monday and court was adjourned. Evans apologized to Judge Jack A. Murphy because he had not prepared for Rose’s testimony to end so early. Evans had no more witnesses prepared.
“I’ve got a bunch subpoenaed for Tuesday, your honor, but I wasn’t expecting this.”
Monday was the trial’s sixth day, and is expected to last up to two weeks. Court will resume at 9 a.m. today.
Kansan staff writer Erick R. Schmidt can be contacted at eschmidt@kansan.com.
— Edited by Darla Slipke
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