Expert: Fire investigators did not show their work

Nov. 17--PORT ORCHARD -- Based on the Kitsap County fire marshal's documented evidence of a fatal fire last year that killed a 37-year-old man, and led to his surviving girlfriend standing trial for his murder, there is no way to determine it was arson, a fire investigation expert contended in Kitsap Superior Court.

Dale Mann, a certified fire investigator, began testimony last week in the murder trial of Shelly M. Arndt, 46, who is charged with the Feb. 23, 2014, death of longtime boyfriend Darcy Veeder Jr., 37.

Mann was hired by Arndt's attorney, David LaCross, to evaluate the investigation conducted by Fire Marshal David Lynam. In reviewing the documentation, Mann concluded there was not sufficient information to support the investigator's conclusions, which are that the fire started downstairs on a beanbag chair near a leather couch and that it was intentionally set.

On Monday, Mann told jurors the photographs of the scene were "minimal" and noted that one of the state's four fire investigator witnesses relied on Mann's photos during testimony.

"That tells me there was insufficient documentation for (the expert) to use," Mann said, telling jurors that visiting the scene at NE Wellington Lane in East Bremerton was helpful. "I really didn't have a good sense of the scene until I went there."

However, Superior Court Judge Leila Mills ruled Mann could not opine on his own findings at the scene, and his comments to jurors were restricted to what he observed but not what could be considered "investigatory."

This has limited the scope of the defense's case, including testimony expected from Mann about a plastic bucket Mann said he recovered from the scene, after county investigators had been through. The bucket has a lower burning point than the beanbag chair investigators testified was first lit on fire, and the defense intended to introduce Mann's testimony that he moved the melted plastic bucket and found "pristine" floor underneath. According to the defense's theory, if the fire marshal's conclusion on the origin of the fire was correct, the plastic bucket would have been destroyed.

Prosecutors fought to narrow Mann's testimony, and Deputy Prosecutor Kelly Montgomery told the judge that Mann had been selective in what evidence he handled at the scene.

"He didn't want to prove Fire Marshal Lynam right," Montgomery told Mills.

Mann said a ceiling fan in the downstairs room where county investigators said the fire began had been excluded from the official report.

"There is simply no mention of it in the investigatory file," Mann said, which he said was an example of "expectation bias," or the tendency of experimenters to discard evidence that does not support what they expect to find.

However, a fire investigator for the insurance company, former Kitsap Deputy Fire Marshal Ed Iskra, told jurors he located the fan and rotated it, which indicated to him the fire did not start inside the fan motor. The fan, however, was not removed from the scene for testing by investigators.

Arndt's attorneys have contended investigators were aware of Arndt's convictions for arson and domestic violence. Lynam, on the stand, said that although he was aware of Arndt's past, he ensures that he and his staff avoid bias by following the scientific method and conduct each fire investigation the same.

Arndt is charged with two counts of first-degree murder in the death of Veeder, along with first-degree arson and six counts of second-degree assault, one each for the people who escaped the early morning blaze.

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