July 08--The state Superior Court has upheld the conviction of a former Scranton firefighter found guilty of setting fire to a garage that then spread to an apartment building he owned.
Thomas S. Gervasi was convicted in December 2011 of multiple counts of arson, endangering the welfare of others and several other related offenses in connection with a June 17, 2008, fire that started in a garage at 1021 Mark Ave., Scranton, then spread to the apartment building, displacing 14 tenants. He was sentenced in March 2012 to five to 10 years in state prison.
Mr. Gervasi appealed the verdict on several grounds, including claims that the trial judge improperly permitted evidence of his financial troubles, and improperly allowed a state trooper to introduce evidence of a test he performed to confirm his theory of how the blaze started.
During the trial, prosecutors presented evidence that Mr. Gervasi had just learned his filing for bankruptcy had been dismissed, and that the garage that burned was in foreclosure. Mr. Gervasi's attorney argued that evidence should not have been permitted based on a prior state Supreme Court ruling that says evidence of a defendant's financial condition cannot be used to prove motive to commit a crime.
In its ruling, the Superior Court acknowledged the Supreme Court ruling, but noted that ruling related to evidence that was presented solely to stigmatize a defendant. In this case, prosecutors had a direct correlation between the financial problems and motive, which made the evidence admissible.
Regarding the test, the state trooper theorized the fire was started by a tire that was set ablaze in the building. To confirm his suspicion, he lit a tire on fire to see if it left similar evidence to that found at the crime scene.
Mr. Gervasi argued the judge erred in allowing the testimony because the test was actually a re-creation of the fire, and that the re-creation was drastically different from the actual fire.
The Superior Court rejected that argument, saying the test was a demonstration of the trooper's theory, not a re-creation of the fire, and therefore was admissible.
Contact the writer: [email protected]
Copyright 2013 - The Times-Tribune, Scranton, Pa.
