Anthony Baye hit with 44-count arson indictment
Grand jury links defendant to city's Dec. 27 night of fires
Wednesday, February 24, 20101
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NORTHAMPTON - Authorities Tuesday brought a raft of new charges against alleged arsonist Anthony Baye, for the first time explicitly connecting him with numerous fires set around the city Dec. 27.
Previously charged with murder in the deaths of a father and son in one of the fires, Baye now faces a total of 44 counts, including four counts of arson of a dwelling and 14 counts of arson of a motor vehicle.
The new charges come after a Hampshire County grand jury Tuesday afternoon handed up a series of indictments against Baye. Made up of 23 randomly selected people, the grand jury meets in secret to consider evidence presented by prosecutors.
Now that he is under indictment, Baye's case will be heard in Hampshire Superior Court. He is set to be arraigned, or formally charged, March 8.
For now, he is being held without bail at the Hampshire Jail and House of Correction.
The Dec. 27 fires shocked Northampton, triggering community meetings and Neighborhood Watch efforts, as well as fundraisers that to date have raised more than $83,000 for arson victims.
Tuesday's indictments name 28 victims, including Paul Yeskie Sr. and Paul Yeskie Jr., who died in a fire at their 17 Fair St. home. Other listed victims are the owners of other buildings and vehicles that Baye allegedly set on fire or tried to set on fire.
Among the charges against Baye are three counts of armed burglary. These relate to the fire at 17 Fair St., another devastating blaze at the home of Glenn Siegel and Laura Seftel at 26 Union St., and a porch fire at the 10 Highland Ave. apartment building owned by Jude Demeis.
"Burglary" in this case is not the same as robbery. As defined under state law, burglary is any unauthorized entry into a building. As for the "armed" portion of the charge, the indictments characterize as a dangerous weapon a cigarette lighter Baye allegedly used to set the fires.
Suspect early on
Northwestern District Attorney Elizabeth Scheibel said previously that investigators found no trace of accelerant in any of the fires. In the case of the fire that killed the Yeskies, Scheibel said, Baye started the fire by applying a cigarette lighter to "household items" on an enclosed porch.
About a week after the fires, police executed a search warrant at Baye's apartment, above his parents' 85 Hawley St. home. There they recovered eight lighters, according to court papers. Investigators also seized Baye's computer, iPhone and the clothes he was wearing on the night of the fire.
Although Baye wasn't arrested until 10 days after the fires, public information in the case indicates he was a suspect from early on.
Even as firefighters from around the region were responding to multiple blazes, Baye was being questioned by officers patrolling the greater downtown area. According to police reports, around 3:30 a.m. on Dec. 27, Baye told officers he was coming from a friend's house on Hillside Road and heading to his girlfriend's place on Bancroft Road. Police say investigators later proved this to be a false alibi.
In interviews with detectives shortly before his arrest, according to police reports, Baye confessed to setting fire to the Yeskies' porch.
The next morning, Jan. 5, Baye appeared in Northampton District Court to answer charges of murder, armed burglary and arson. As is standard at this early stage in the court process, he pleaded innocent.
Lawyers retained
Reached by phone Tuesday afternoon, a man who identified himself as Baye's father said he hadn't yet been notified of the new charges. He declined to comment further, saying his son's lawyers had advised the family not to speak to the press.
For his Northampton District Court arraignment on Jan. 5, Baye was appointed a public defender, Alan Rubin of the Committee for Public Counsel Services.
Since then Baye has retained two different lawyers, David Hoose of Amherst and Thomas Lesser of Northampton, both of whom declined to comment on the case in any detail.
"That's quite a number," Hoose said of the 44 counts against Baye.
"I don't think we have a whole lot to say at this point," Hoose said. "We were expecting that he was going to be indicted for the other fires."
Deputy First Assistant Northwestern District Attorney Elizabeth Dunphy Farris presented evidence to the grand jury. Although the indictments are a significant milestone in the arson case, Farris said the case remains under investigation by a task force of local, state and federal authorities.
Scheibel said previously that one of the task force's objectives would be to review not only the Dec. 27 fires but also several others around Northampton's Ward 3 stretching back four years. There have been 15 suspicious fires in the neighborhood since February 2006, all of them unsolved.
Authorities haven't said whether Baye, who lives in the heart of that neighborhood on Hawley Street, could have been involved in any of the past fires.
"I have no information to release relating the past fires to the fires of Dec. 27," Farris said Tuesday.
James F. Lowe can be reached at jlowe@gazettenet.com.
