Trial begins in case of Ligonier Township arson

A Laughlintown man spoke “gibberish” when he confessed to burning a home last year in Ligonier Township, his attorney said Wednesday.

In his opening statement in the arson trial of Brian W. McVicker, defense attorney Tim Andrews said prosecutors cannot prove the Jan. 15, 2019, fire that destroyed a home behind the Washington Furnace Inn was intentionally set.

“He was completely gone that night and he was speaking gibberish. He couldn’t have done it the way he said he did. It’s not possible,” Andrews told jurors in Westmoreland County court.

McVicker, 55, is on trial on two counts of arson and single charges of risking catastrophe, burglary, trespassing, criminal mischief and a drug offense. Police contend McVicker set fire to a home he was allowed to live in for free in exchange for working as a caretaker at the shuttered inn on Route 30.

Prosecutors contend that police and fire crews arrived at the burning home and found McVicker holding a lighter and claiming he set the blaze that engulfed the residence.

In her opening statement, Assistant District Attorney Katie Ranker said investigators determined an accelerant was used to just inside the home’s front door. She said McVicker told police he lit a can of Crisco to start the blaze two months after the building’s owner told him the house was to be sold and, as a result, his rent-free arrangement was likely to end.

“Mr. McVicker set fire to that house behind the Washington Furnace Inn and he admitted to it,” Ranker said.

As the blaze raged, McVicker barged into the home of a neighbor, claimed people were after him and discharged a fire extinguisher, Ranker said. Police found methamphetamines in McVicker’s pocket, she told jurors.

Andrews disputed the prosecution’s case and said his client’s admission cannot be believed.

“You take a cigarette lighter to a can of Crisco and it’s not going to catch on fire. Crisco, you scoop it out into a pan and it melts and you cook with it. It’s not an accelerant,” Andrews said.

Testimony is expected to start Thursday.