Allegheny County D.A. will retry arson case from 1995 when 3 firefighters were killed

Aug. 31--The Allegheny County District Attorney's office said today it will retry the case of a man who was accused to setting a 1995 fire on Bricelyn Street that killed three firefighters.

The announcement by the D.A.'s office followed a decision by the state Supreme Court, which said today that will not hear an appeal on the case of Gregory Brown, 38. That decision meant that the D.A.'s office must either retry the case or allow Mr. Brown to go free.

Mr. Brown was found guilty of three counts of second-degree murder for the 1995 Valentine's Day fire in the East Hills section of Pittsburgh that killed firefighters Thomas Brooks, 42, Patricia Conroy, 43, and Marc Kolenda, 27.

In 2014, Common Pleas Judge Joseph K. Williams III overturned the 1997 conviction, finding that the prosecution withheld impeachment evidence from the defense regarding two critical witnesses who were promised reward money for their testimony.

The DA's office appealed, and the state Superior Court, in a 2-1 decision, upheld Judge Williams' ruling, finding that Mr. Brown was "thwarted by the commonwealth's repeated denials that a reward had even been paid."

The prosecution appealed that ruling to the state Supreme Court, which today issued an order saying it would not take the case.

The office of District Attorney Stephen A. Zappala Jr. released a statement saying: "The Superior Court has directed that the matter of this arson committed in February of 1995 which resulted in the deaths of three firefighters must be re-tried. The Commonwealth will re-try the case."

Mr. Brown, who was 17 at the time of the fire, was sentenced to life in prison without parole. At trial, the prosecution argued that Brown and his mother, Darlene Buckner, had plotted to set the fire to collect on a $20,000 renter's insurance policy. Ms. Buckner was found guilty of insurance fraud and ordered to serve three years' probation.

His attorney, Dave Fawcett, said his client is "relieved."

"We're sensitive to the families of the firefighters whose lives were lost in the tragic fire of 1995, but we represent an innocent man who has spent all of his adult life in jail for a crime he did not commit," said Mr. Fawcett, an attorney with Reed Smith.

He said Brown was convicted "because of bad arson science, and because [federal Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives] investigators, without telling anyone, agree to pay a poor kid -- a directionless, young teenage criminal -- lots of money if he would testify against Greg."

Paula Reed Ward: pward@post-gazette.com.

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