Trial in fatal fire delayed
The trial of the man accused of setting fire to an apartment building that killed two Toledo firefighters nearly three years ago has been pushed back about two months, to early April, at defense lawyers’ request.
Attorney Peter Rost told Lucas County Common Pleas Judge Stacy Cook on Tuesday he doesn’t believe a defense can be adequately prepared for Ray Abou-Arab, 63, in time to meet the Feb. 6 scheduled start of jury selection.
Mr. Rost requested a delay until “late April or May,” but when the judge said the latest she could block out a period of two to three weeks to try the case was from April 3-21, the defense lawyer and prosecutors agreed to those dates.
Mr. Abou-Arab, a former Oregon resident who owned the apartment building at 634 Magnolia St. that burned Jan. 26, 2014, is charged with two counts of aggravated murder, two counts of aggravated arson, and nine other counts associated with that fire.
Toledo Fire Pvts. Stephen Machcinski, 42, and James Dickman, 31, died in the fire. The aggravated murder charges against Mr. Abou-Arab carry death-penalty specifications.
The rescheduling followed a bond hearing during which Mr. Rost asked that $4 million in bond related to the aggravated murder charges be dropped on the grounds that nothing in the “open-file” case record shows Mr. Abou-Arab intended to kill the firefighters who became trapped in the burning building.
To support that assertion, Mr. Rost attempted to call Deborah Hahn, a Toledo police detective, as a witness during the hearing to testify about the state’s case related to those counts.
But Judge Cook declined to allow the detective’s testimony, which Robert Miller, an assistant county prosecutor, said would amount to a “fishing expedition.”
Mr. Rost then repeated that “not one shred of evidence” in written reports or findings revealed “any type of vendetta or grudge” on his client’s behalf toward the firefighters or the Toledo Fire Department.
Reducing bond to the remaining $1.85 million related to the other charges, he said, would allow Mr. Abou-Arab to offer as security the value of a dozen properties belonging to residents and friends.
Mr. Miller countered that having sold his home and his interest in a carryout adjoining the Magnolia Street site, Mr. Abou-Arab remained a flight risk even after he had surrendered his passport to police.
Judge Cook ruled that Common Pleas Judge Frederick McDonald, who handled the case before his retirement in early 2015, had not set bond arbitrarily and that circumstances had not substantially changed since he had done so.
Mr. Abou-Arab was returned to the Lucas County jail pending a Feb. 16 scheduling conference with attorneys and the judge.
http://www.toledoblade.com/Courts/20...e-delayed.html
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