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Show i The Newspaper Wednesday, November 25, 1981 Page All Sentencing Dec. 21 Jury convicts trio of 'reckless burning5 in Coalition fire Ivy i ! i ' s 'I 'ft fi ill "III v. 1 if ! '? I, ' - illlll 1 Christopher DiLaura Carl Wilcox "I thought at the time it was the sun coming up, " Wilcox said. "It was very bright. Then there was a crackling. The train was crackling. " "It looked like a fallen-down old building to me," Slease testified. "I didn't think no one would care if we spent the night in it." by David Hampshire Three Salt Lake City men, whose efforts to keep warm one morning last July cost Park City its most famous landmark, were convicted Friday of reckless burning, a Class A misdemeanor, after a two-day trial in Third District Court. An eight-person jury deliberated for an hour and 40 minutes before returning its verdict. At the same time the three men were exonerated of felony arson and burglary charges in connection with the fire which destroyed the Silver King Coalition Building in the early morning hours of July 20. The trial was originally scheduled for Third District Court in Coalville Nov. 17. However, Judge Bryant Croft was unable to find an impartial jury after interviewing inter-viewing more than 20 area residents, and ordered the proceedings moved to Salt Lake City. Prosecuting attorney Terry Christiansen called on nine witnesses in an effort to prove that the defendants, Carl Lee Wilcox, Randall believed to be a dirt floor, and did their best to extinguish ex-tinguish the flames before they left. Referring to the testimony of the witnesses and statements taken from the defendants themselves, Christiansen attempted to prove that the weather was not cold enough to warrant building a fire. "You've got to remember the time of year we're talking about," he said. "It's July 20, right in the middle of ' the summer months." He reminded the jury that the men had to scale an eight-foot fence topped with barbed wire to enter the old building, then built a fire on what was, in fact, a wooden floor. And he pointed out that the fire appeared to start in a matter of a few minutes. "In your experiences as human beings, is that the way accidental fires start?" he asked the jury. However, the jury apparently ap-parently agreed with defense attorney Kenneth Brown that Christiansen had failed to prove criminal intent. "You have to find that they While the 85-foot-tall building was blazing furiously less than 200 feet away, DiLaura was the epitome of cool. "I figured we were safe in the car, " he said. "I laid back down and went to sleep. " Scott Slease and Christopher James DiLaura, had deliberately burned the building to the ground. However, the three men stuck to their story that they had entered the building to keep warm, had started a small fire on what they had the conscious objective and desire to go into that building and burn the place down," Brown said in his closing arguments. "My clients admit they were trespassing. But they aren't charged with trespassing. They're charged with arson and burglary." Among the witnesses for the prosecution was Dan Clark, a security guard for Sunn Classic Pictures and the first man to reach the scene of the blaze. He reported re-ported that he had seen Slease standing just outside the fence on the east side of the building, and had followed him to a nearby railroad car. Park City Chief Investigator In-vestigator Lloyd Evans testified that he went to the same railroad car and arrested the three defendants defen-dants about 5:40 a.m. "They were laying down in individual in-dividual berths of the c;ir " Evans said. Each of the three di'tcn-dants di'tcn-dants took the stand in his own defense on the second day of the trial. Each tcM basically the same story: they had come to the Park City area for a Beach Boys concert, had attended a party at the ParkWest Condominiums, Condo-miniums, then came into Park City to visit a few of the local watering holes. They said that they had left the Cowboy Bar shortly before 2 a.m., then started walking out of town, hoping to hitch a ride out to the freeway. They made it as far as the Coalition Building. "It looked like a fallen-down fallen-down old building to me," Slease testified. "I didn't think no one would care if we spent the night in it." Slease and DiLaura both mentioned that they had received military combat training which made the eight-foot fence a relatively minor obstacle. They said they used old calibration charts and pieces of lath to build a small fire on a couple of pieces of sheet metal which were lying on the floor. "Isn't it a fact that you knew the floor was wood?" Christiansen challenged Wilcox. "No I did not!" Wilcox shot back. But didn't they think to examine the floor first, Christiansen wondered. "I wasn't there to worry time it was the sun coming up," he said. "It was very bright. Then there was a crackling. The train was crackling." Wilcox u wakened his companions. com-panions. "All of a sudden I heard Carl say, 'Holy Cow, the building is on fire!'" DiLaura testified. Slease said he went out to investigate while the other two stayed put. He was Wilcox was dressed in long pants and a red souvenir Park City T-shirt. The shirt was decorated with a rendition of the Coalition Building. about the floor. I was there to keep warm," Wilcox insisted. in-sisted. After staying inside the building for about an hour, the three men decided to leave. "Me and Carl (Wilcox) both thought we heard a noise that sounded like a vehicle pulling up behind the building," Slease said. The defendants insisted that they had gone to great lengths to make sure the fire was out, pouring several cans of beer on it, throwing dirt on the embers, even stepping on the coals. "I went back and looked, and I didn't see nothing glowing," Slease said. "In my own mind it was out." The men said they left through a gap in the fence on the east side of the building, then took refuge in a nearby railroad car which was unlocked. They estimated that the time was about 3 a.m. They testified that they went to sleep, each in a separate berth. Wilcox was the first to wake up. "I thought at the heading back to the car when he was spotted by security guard Dan Clark. While the 85-foot-tall building build-ing was blazing furiously less than 200 feet away, DiLaura was the epitome of cool. "I figured we were safe in the car," he said. "I laid back down and went to sleep." The men were still in the car when Evans came to arrest them about an hour later. Evans testified that Slease and DiLaura both were wearing cutoffs and T-shirts at the time they were arrested. Wilcox, on the other hand, was dressed in long pants and a red souvenir Park City T-shirt. The shirt was decorated with a rendition of the Coalition Building. The men showed little emotion at the time the verdict ver-dict was announced. They are scheduled to appear again in Coalville on Dec. 21 for sentencing. The maximum sentence they can receive is one year in jail and a $1,000 fine. U -yw-wmjpum. mm uMWumuinuiiini i .yuwiuiuiiiiu iuiiulUm ii.ih i; immii . u imii in mm n " If", i , , " Wa " -VvN 1 1 i m imanu'mi-.w - --- ,.0,,.,. " . : .agSBfta,. . . I 1 n.-fr- I I soowbrd season ticcets: Improved run grooming! Expanded snow cat grooming fleet! IVz new chairlifts installed last season! 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