Syracuse, NY – Jury selection is complete and opening arguments are expected this afternoon in the arson trial of Alan Norcutt, a Syracuse man convicted nearly half a century ago of two arsons in Chicago in which three people died. Norcutt, 62, of Sacket Street, Syracuse, is accused of using lighter fluid to set fire Oct. 23 to a camping...
Syracuse, NY – Jury selection is complete and opening arguments are expected this afternoon in the arson trial of Alan Norcutt, a Syracuse man convicted nearly half a century ago of two arsons in Chicago in which three people died.
Norcutt, 62, of Sacket Street, Syracuse, is accused of using lighter fluid to set fire Oct. 23 to a camping trailer where he used to live on Park Avenue. He was indicted on a charge of third-degree arson, a felony, in February.
County Court Judge Anthony F. Aloi raised Norcutt’s bail to $250,000 after learning that his record included a conviction for arson and felony murder and a 15- to 30-year sentence for setting a fire in 1964 in which a Chicago firefighter perished.
Norcutt previously had served 10 months in a reformatory after pleading guilty to arson and involuntary manslaughter for setting fire to a rooming house in 1963, killing two people.
However, Aloi later ruled that prosecutors cannot tell the jury in the Syracuse case about the Chicago fires, ruling that they don’t have to do so to win a conviction.