A Look Ahead: Court ruling will guide Northampton's fatal arson trial
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NORTHAMPTON - Two years ago, Northampton was rocked by a deadly arson spree unprecedented in the state. In 2012, the alleged culprit will face trial.
How the trial will play out hinges on a ruling from the state's highest legal authority. The Supreme Judicial Court is expected to decide sometime in January or February whether a 10-hour recording of a police interrogation can be used as evidence against defendant Anthony Baye.
Baye, of Hawley Street, was arrested 10 days after the fires. He has had two birthdays in jail, and is now 27. Two people who died in one of the fires Baye allegedly set would have celebrated their birthdays in less than two weeks. Paul Yeskie Sr., 81, and Paul Yeskie Jr., 39, shared the same birth date, Jan. 15, and died on the same day, Dec. 29, 2009.
Without the interrogation tapes, the prosecution would lose a significant portion of its case and could be forced to rely on circumstantial evidence, like two encounters Baye had with police in a neighborhood off Elm Street as fires raged nearby. The reasons he gave for being in the area didn't check out, authorities say.
There are no eyewitnesses in the case, but investigators recently returned to Baye's iPhone in search of digital clues that could place him at the scenes of the fires.
Baye's defense team argues it wouldn't be fair for a jury to watch the interrogation tapes because police used coercive techniques, such as telling Baye he wouldn't be charged with murder if he told them he didn't intend the fires to hurt anyone.
When the two sides presented their arguments in November, some judges on the SJC were critical of the interrogators' techniques, but didn't reveal how they were likely to rule.
Brett Vottero, who has successfully prosecuted dozens of arson cases around the state, has been working on the Baye case for the last year. Asked what a decision favoring the defense would mean for his strategy, Vottero said: "We will have to carefully evaluate the ruling to determine what will and will not be allowed into evidence before determining how the Commonwealth will proceed."
James F. Lowe is a Gazette copy editor.
