LAWRENCE, Massachusetts–Due to stormy weather here jurors have the day off today. Yesterday, the panel "toured" the burned-out shell of 44-46 High Rock Street through a video taken shortly after the last glowing embers of a blaze that killed a family of five were finally extinguished.

Kathleen Hilton is on trial here for the murder of that family. Prosecutors contend she started the fire during an on-going custody dispute between her son and his ex-girlfriend. Hilton has pleaded not guilty to all charges.

The video shot by fire investigators took jurors through all three apartments including into the room where the five victims could be seen lying crumpled in a heap.

The video shocked relatives of the victims and prompted one to cry out during its viewing. She lashed out in Spanish against defendant Kathleen Hilton and was immediately ushered out by court officers. Jurors sitting in the darkened courtroom were distracted briefly but then returned their attention to the tape, watching the rest of it in silence.

Jurors heard from Paul Horgan, the fire investigator who worked with Lucy, the accelerant-sniffing police dog. He testified that Lucy could detect 17 varieties of petroleum-based liquids, and her rigorous training made her one of only 48 such canines with this particular expertise in the country.

Horgan said Lucy did not alert him to any accelerants on the second-floor landing, where the Commonwealth’s arson expert testified the fire started. She did, however, alert investigators to some fiberglass insulation found on the porch. Horgan explained Lucy was not specifically trained to detect fiberglass insulation, but the dog may have picked up on its similar characteristics.

Earlier in the day Sgt. Kevin Condon, the Commonwealth’s arson expert, suggested Lucy’s failure to detect an accelerant at 44-46 High Rock Street was not unusual, and certainly no grounds to change his theory as accelerants can be consumed by fire, and in this case gallons of water could have washed away any trace of accelerant in the landing.

That did not stop Defense Attorney Michael Natola from emphasizing what appeared to be Lucy’s high success rate at finding evidence of incendiary liquids. Natola noted that in 95 percent of the cases in which the dog detected the presence of an accelerant, subsequent chemical testing proved she was right.

Stay tuned to In Session for correspondent Beth Karas's in depth trial coverage.

–In Session staff

LAWRENCE, Massachusetts–The supervising chief who led the firefighting efforts at the center of this trial said he knew immediately once he arrived on the scene that he and his men would not be able to save the family trapped on the third floor.

Kathleen Hilton is charged with 5 counts of second-degree murder

“We had completely lost control of this side of the building,” said Deputy Chief William Curran of the Lynn Fire Department. “The fire underneath was too intense. We couldn’t effect search and rescue on the third floor. We had no chance of rescuing the people on the top floor.”

Today is the sixth day of testimony in this Massachusetts courtroom, where Kathleen Hilton is charged with five counts of second-degree murder connected to the 1999 fire. She has pleaded not guilty to all charges, and her defense team says she is mentally ill.

Curran, who over the span of a 37-year career has fought hundreds of fires, said his engine company received the call at 10:59 p.m. that night. Upon their approach to the fire, one of his men called a “working fire,” which would have summoned another ladder company to the site. Curran called in the second alarm at 11:01 p.m. and the third alarm two minutes later, calling for a total of 55 men and 13 vehicles to fight the fire.

“When did you realize you could not save them?” Marcia Slingerland, the assistant district attorney asked. “At 11:01,” said the white-haired chief.

Curran appeared visibly distressed recalling the events, “We didn’t stop trying,” he said. “If they could only have gotten to a window.”

Firefighters of Curran’s engine company attempted several times to reach the third floor after hearing the family’s cries for help, but were forced to retreat because of dense smoke and the spreading flames.

The bodies of Heriberto Feliciano, his family and a relative were found lying against one another in one room a few feet from the window of their attic apartment.

The jury also heard from one of the Commonwealth’s most critical witnesses, Sgt. Kevin Condon. Currently an investigator with the homicide unit of the Massachusetts State Police, he was assigned to the Fire Marshall’s Office at the time of the fire and was charged with determining the cause and origin of the High Street fire.

Condon visited the scene, examining each floor of the burned structure as part of his investigation. He noted that there was no fire in the basement and that the ceiling of the basement remained intact.

He testified that one of the reasons the fire spread so quickly from room to room on the first floor was due to the wood paneling that covered the door and walls. He noted that the building was constructed in 1900 and wood paneling was later commonly used in older homes to avoid having to strip the lead paint off the surfaces. The space created between the painted wall and the paneling caused fires in such buildings to spread more quickly.

“This increased the fuel load enormously,” he said.

Condon steered the jury’s attention to the front entrance of the second and third floor apartments. Displaying pictures of the staircase he pointed to the steps and banister, noting burn damage and charring appeared worse toward the lower end of the staircase. He made a similar observation of the steps in the stairwell, noting that the carpeting on the lower steps had been consumed by fire while the condition of the steps appeared better the higher they went.

He concluded the damage and the smoke and soot patterns left on the walls and ceilings suggested the fire burned upwards and outwards.

Condon’s testimony is expected to help the Commonwealth corroborate defendant Kathleen Hilton’s statement that she set the fire in the landing of the staircase. The defense is disputing the government’s theory of the fire's cause and origin. Attorney Michael Natola is expected to point to testimony from first responders, that the blaze appeared concentrated in the first floor apartment, as evidence contrary to the Commonwealth’s case.

Condon’s testimony resumes today.

–In Session staff

LAWRENCE, Massachusetts–A fire fighter testifying Thursday in the arson murder trial of Kathleen Hilton, accused of setting a 1999 fire that killed five people, said he tried three times to reach the family trapped on the third floor, and finally managed to reach them only to find their bodies piled like mannequins by the window.

Crime scene where 5 people died

“There was zero visibility,” said Kevin Bradley of the Lynn Fire Department. “I crawled across the floor. I felt an arm. I couldn’t see anything. I pulled it toward me. There were four or five inches of water in the room. I looked across the room and I could see the victims.

“They looked like mannequins. There was an adult; the male was closest to the window, and the mother and three kids.”

He choked up slightly as he recalled his own children who appeared to be in the same age range as the children. “I said a little prayer,” he said. The veteran fire fighter chose not to report the finding over his radio and told his supervisor when he reached the ground.

Other fire fighters who responded recalled the family’s cries for help. Lt. Dan Lozzi said they tried to reach them by crawling up the front staircase, but were forced to retreat because the smoke was overwhelming. Lozzi said they attempted their entry by crawling on their hands and knees up the staircase.

Lozzi recalled first observing the fire on the first floor on the right side of the building but it was burning so intensely that it was blowing out all the windows on the first floor. He said he was surprised at the speed at which the fire was “flashing over” spreading from room to room. He did not recall flames in the staircase leading to the second and third floor apartment dwellings. This testimony is expected to help support the defense's contention that the evidence does not support the prosecution theory based on Hilton’s alleged confession of where she started the fire. Hilton has pleaded not guilty to all charges.

Another fire fighter, Michael O’Connor said that when he arrived the fire was burning intensely around the porch area, and it was so hot that he and others had to don their masks at the bottom of the stairs before they could proceed to the porch area. He said the fire appeared to be blasting from the first floor apartment, so much so that he kicked down the door and hosed that area first.

Their efforts would quickly turn from offensive to defensive when the fire chief deemed the fire too dangerous to attempt any entry rescue, and ordered all fire fighters out of the house. It would appear that by the time the order was issued the fire had already claimed the lives of Heriberto Feliciano and his family.

The jury also heard from Jose Santiago, whose 11-year-old daughter was killed in the fire. Santiago said that he had been to the apartment at about 9:00 p.m. that night and when he left at 10:30 p.m. everything appeared to be fine. Prosecutors are expected to use Santiago’s testimony to bolster Charles Loayza’s alibi that he was at work when the fire was set, making his mother the likely arsonist.

Stay tuned to In Session for in-depth coverage of this trial.

–In Session staff

LAWRENCE, Massachusetts–Jurors heard testimony Wednesday that accused arsonist Kathleen Hilton was at the scene of the High Rock Street inferno that claimed five lives, even before fire fighters got there and just as the first police officers were arriving.

Hilton, who has spent the last 10 years in jail awaiting trial, is charged with five counts of murder. In addition to putting Hilton at the scene, Krystina Sutherland also told jurors that she had an argument with the defendant’s son just two hours before her house burned.

Sutherland testified that Hilton called her at about 9:00 p.m. that night, and passed the phone to her son, Charles Loayza. Sutherland had severed her allegedly abusive relationship with Loazya and was keeping him at bay with a restraining order. On the phone, Loayza pleaded with her to to see his childlren. When Sutherland refused, he told her “If you love your kids you’ll get them out of the house,” and then he “threatened to blow up or burn down the house.”

Sutherland said she thought his threats were empty until that night, when smoke filled her apartment and her family was looking for a way to escape. She said she tried to alert her landlord and his family who lived on the third floor, but they couldn’t open the door.

“I thought I was going to die. I remember going on the kitchen floor and praying with my kids and thinking I was going to die here,” she said through tears.

Once she and her children were safely out, she noticed the defendant among the crowd. She said she ignored her but told a police officer about the threats Hilton’s son had made just hours earlier. The officer escorted her to his vehicle, and once there, Sutherland said Hilton asked to see the children and tried to hug her. Sutherland said she was so incensed she pushed her away and started screaming. The commotion summoned an officer to the car, and Sutherland told him that Hilton was Loayza’s mother and that she didn’t want her to take her children.

Jurors also heard compelling testimony from the rest of Sutherland’s family, including her mother Anne Marie Zarba, who testified that she had argued with Loayza about seeing the children the same afternoon and he had threatened then to burn down the house if he couldn’t see them.

Zarba also testified that at one point the defendant told her she wanted Sutherland and her son to get back together and boasted about meeting a wealthy man in Gloucester, and said she wanted to pay for a lavish wedding for the pair.

Michael Zarba, 12 years old at the time, testified that after he fled their home, he rode in the ambulance with his niece, nephew and the defendant. He said he recalled Hilton telling him that she smelled smoke from her house and “had a feeling” it was their house on fire.

Prosecutors contend Hilton set the fire to punish Sutherland, believing if her grandchildren were burned out of their home, they would have to move in with her son.

Defense attorneys say Hilton is innocent and took the rap to protect her son.

–In Session staff

LAWRENCE, Massachusetts–At the trial of Kathleen Hilton, charged with five counts of murder after allegedly setting a house fire in February 1999, jurors watched dramatic amateur video of the blazing inferno that killed a family of five and left two other families homeless.

Kathleen Hilton in court facing second-degree murder charges

The 20-minute tape offered jurors a close-up look at the flames that raged for over an hour, capturing scenes of fire fighters’ rescue efforts and the sound of splintering glass as they struggled to bring the blaze under control. Prosecutors asked jurors to focus on a single excerpt from the video, slowed to enhance the figure of who they believe to be Kathleen Hilton among the crowd of onlookers. Prosecutors contend she was not an innocent bystander, but the arsonist who set the fire that destroyed the multi-family dwelling.

Jurors also heard from neighbors who helped rescue some of the victims. Mellonie Burke, who lived direct across the street from the ill-fated building, testified that after Krystina Sutherland escaped the fire, she collapsed in her hallway and told her that “He (Charles) did it. He called me and told he would burn my house down.” Burke also recalled hearing an angry exchange between Charles Loayza and Sutherland’s mother earlier that day in which Loayza threatened to burn the house down if he could not see his children. At the time, Loayza, son of defendant Katheen Hilton, and Sutherland, his ex-girlfriend, were fighting over the custody of their two children.

Prosecutors say Hilton set the fire to get back at Loayza. The defense claims there is no forensic evidence linking Hilton to the fire, and say she has a history of mental health issues.

Following the testimony of the neighbors, the jury was escorted to the site and taken through the apartments where the families lived. While the building has been repaired, much of the structure remains the same.

The jury also viewed the defendant’s two-room apartment and walked the distance between the houses. Prosecutors are expected to argue that Hilton could not have seen smoke from her home, and could only have known the house was on fire because she set it.

Defense attorneys wanted jurors to see the locations in the dark of night. They intend to challenge the reliability of a witness who is expected to testify he saw a woman fitting Hilton’s description on the porch of the house shortly before the fire started. Finally, the jury was taken to Tech-Pak, now called Lifefoam, the company where Charles Loayza went to work on the night of fire.

–In Session staff

COLUMBIA, Missouri–After three grueling days of testimony, jurors here are about to receive the case of Steven Rios, a former police officer charged with murdering Jesse Valencia, a college student with whom he had been having a secret affair.

Rios has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder charges in this case, but it is not the first time this case has been tried. Three years ago, another jury convicted Rios of first-degree murder – a conviction later overturned by an appellate-level court. If the defendant is convicted a second time, he faces a mandatory sentence of life in prison.

In all, jurors in this second Rios trial heard from a total of 65 separate witnesses – 55 for the prosecution, and 12 for the defense (2 witnesses testified for both sides). On Thursday, the defendant's ex-wife took the stand in her former husband's defense, and both cried through much of her testimony. Elizabeth Sullivan told jurors that she was shocked to learn about her husband's affair and described her husband's reaction to being named a suspect in the crime.

Closing arguments should begin by mid-morning – which means that the sequestered jury should begin its deliberations by sometime this afternoon.

Stay tuned to In Session for live coverage of this case.

–In Session staff

COLUMBIA, Missouri–The defense in the Missouri murder trial of former police officer Steven Rios is expected to begin today.

Jesse Valencia

Wednesday was another 13-hour marathon day, as Missouri prosecutors continue to call witnesses against Rios, on trial for the brutal 2004 murder of college student Jesse Valencia. The prosecution believes that the married Rios killed Valencia because he feared the latter was about to reveal that the two men had been having a clandestine sexual relationship.

If convicted, the defendant faces a mandatory sentence of life in prison. Rios has pleaded not guilty.

Several of Wednesday’s witnesses testified that at one time or another they had observed Rios with a clip knife with a serrated edge – a weapon the prosecution believes was the murder weapon - but which Rios denies having ever owned. Another witness told jurors she was alone at Valencia’s apartment one night when Rios unexpectedly showed up. And still another testified that he watched Rios having sex with Valencia less than a month before the murder.

Stay tuned as In Session continues live coverage of this case with correspondent Jean Casarez.

–In Session staff

COLUMBIA, Missouri–The trial of an ex-police officer accused of murdering a man with whom he had a sexual relationship began here Tuesday. In a court session worthy of the Olympics – the trial day extended from 8:00 a.m. until 9:00 p.m. ET, a full 13 hours – jurors heard from 13 prosecution witnesses who were called to bolster the State’s theory that the married Steven Rios killed Jesse Valencia because he was afraid that the latter would reveal their secret affair.

Steven Rios is accused of murdering a man with whom he had been having a sexual relationship

According to the medical examiner who conducted Valencia’s autopsy, the victim’s body shows signs of being choked into unconsciousness before his throat was slashed – a fatal gash so deep that the knife blade nicked his spine.

Prosecutors theorize that this kind of choke hold is a defensive technique taught to law enforcement officers – including the defendant, an ex-cop. But on cross-examination, the medical examiner conceded that more mundane pressure – some force requiring no specialized training – is also a possibility.

The trial continues at 9 a.m. this morning on In Session, with live reports from outside the courthouse with correspondent Jean Casarez.

–In Session staff

LAS VEGAS–O.J. Simpson has been denied in his motion for a new trial.

I'm here in Las Vegas, where, in the first court proceeding since Simpson and co-defendant Clarence Stewart were convicted on 12 criminal counts, Judge Jackie Glass stated she had studied the motions for a new trial and denied them all.

As the hearing got underway, attorneys for both men complained to Glass that their clients were not allowed to wear suits to court, and were dressed in the blue uniforms of the Clark County Detention Center.

Simpson's attorneys based their motion for a new trial on seven main issues, including errors during jury selection, not allowing full cross-examination of witnesses and not allowing the defense to present their theory of the case through jury instructions.

Brent Bryson, attorney for Stewart, who also argued for a new trial for his client, based his motion on alleged juror misconduct.

I don't think anyone believed Judge Glass would reverse her rulings, but it is the first step in a post-conviction process that now goes forward with sentencing in December.

That is, unless Simpson's defense team is successful with a motion that raises, in more detail, the alleged juror misconduct issue. Simpson's defense attorney, Yale Galanter, says we will very shortly see a motion that will allege jury foreman Paul Connelly was less than truthful on his jury questionnaire, which the defense says amounted to jury misconduct.

In addition, defense attorney Brent Bryson stated in open court today that Connelly was terminated by his employer, Pepsi, for making racial statements. Galanter and Gabriel Grasso will ask Judge Glass for an evidentiary hearing on the issue.

If it is denied, don't be surprised if there is an emergency appeal on the matter to the Nevada Supreme Court. All of this is expected to be done before the sentencing of Simpson and Stewart, scheduled for December 5.

–Jean Casarez, In Session correspondent

BARTOW, Florida–After deliberating for almost six and a half hours, Alejandro Ferrer – charged with the brutal murder of his girlfriend’s ex-lover – was found guilty minutes ago of the lesser charge of second-degree murder for stabbing Colin Zieler a total of 42 times, in what he told police was self-defense. 

Ferrer could have faced the death penalty if convicted of first-dgree murder, but now faces life in prison when sentenced on December 17.

Stay tuned to In Session today for all the latest details in this case.

–In Session staff