Syracuse, NY - A jury that decides if a Syracuse man set fire to a camping trailer last year will not hear about the defendant’s history of setting three dozen fires – two of them fatal – in Chicago four decades ago, a judge ruled today. Onondaga County Judge Anthony Aloi told Chief Assistant District Attorney Timothy Hennigan the...
Alan NorcuttSyracuse, NY - A jury that decides if a Syracuse man set fire to a camping trailer last year will not hear about the defendant’s history of setting three dozen fires – two of them fatal – in Chicago four decades ago, a judge ruled today.
Onondaga County Judge Anthony Aloi told Chief Assistant District Attorney Timothy Hennigan the prejudice of having a jury hearing about Alan Norcutt’s fire-setting past as a teenager would outweigh any value it served in proving an arson count against Norcutt now.
Norcutt, 62, of Sackett Street, is accused of using lighter fluid Oct. 23 to set fire to a camping trailer where he had previously lived in the 800 block of Park Avenue.
As a 17-year-old, Norcutt was convicted of arson and murder charges in a fire that killed a Chicago firefighter in December 1964. That fire was set less than a month after Norcutt was released from a reformatory where he had served 10 months for arson and involuntary manslaughter in an August 1963 rooming house fire that killed two people.
At that time, Norcutt admitted having set 33 additional fires.
Hennigan was seeking to introduce evidence of that fire-setting past as proof Norcutt set the trailer fire here. Defense lawyer Laurin Haddad objected, arguing a jury would convict Norcutt based solely on hearing he was responsible for deaths even if they were more than 40 years ago.
Haddad contended the prosecution can try to prove its arson case without the need to bring up Norcutt’s past. Aloi agreed, noting Henninghan did not need to show evidence of what happened more than 40 years ago when Norcutt was a teenager to prove if he set a fire here last fall.
But Aloi said his ruling could change at trial if the defense opens the door by making the prior incidents relevant.
Aloi today rejected Haddad’s request for a change of venue to move Norcutt’s trial out of Onondaga County because of pre-trial publicity.
The judge agreed with Hennigan that such a request at this point was premature. Aloi also said he had seen juries selected for local criminal cases that had received a lot more publicity than Norcutt’s case.
Norcutt’s trial on a third-degree arson charge is set for Sept. 27.