Adam Huening
Greensburg Daily News
October 22, 2009 11:15 am
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The hearing held to breathe new life into a 1996 murder conviction concluded Wednesday with two more expert witnesses offering what defense attorneys believe to be new evidence in the case.
The defense team, led by Ron Safer of Chicago and backed by Northwestern University’s Center for Wrongful Conviction, offered a factual witness as well as two experts in the murder case involving Kristine Bunch. She was convicted in 1996 of arson and murder in the death of her 3-year-old son, Anthony Bunch, who perished in a mobile home fire.
The first of the experts, combustion science engineering expert Jamie McAllister, offered her opinion on how Anthony died and what his manner of death proved about the fire that engulfed the Bunch trailer on June 30, 1995. McAllister wrote in her affidavit, and testified in court, that the autopsy showed Anthony suffered an 80 percent carbon-oxyhemoglobin level, or carbon monoxide poisoning. A level of 50 percent, she noted, is fatal. She stated that since Anthony died of carbon monoxide poisoning, the fire had to have an origin in a closed compartment or area with poor ventilation. This, she noted, was based on studies that show people who perish in a fire but are not in the same area as the flames die as a result of high levels of carbon monoxide poisoning.
Her theory stipulated that the fire began between the ceiling and the roof, where ventilation was poor, above the bedroom where Anthony perished. As the fire smoldered, the carbon monoxide built up and began to “leak” through the ceiling into the room. When the ceiling collapsed from fire, she said, it caused the gas to fill the room, like “a balloon bursting.”
Prosecutor William O. Smith questioned the theory. He wondered if the fire had to start in the ceiling or could it have started in the walls. She said either would have produced the same separate compartment effect, however, the burst of carbon monoxide from the ceiling coming down would be consistent with the levels found in Anthony’s body. It was her testimony that Anthony was not killed by fire, and was likely dead long before people attempted to rescue him.
“What I’m saying is Anthony Bunch was incapacitated and already deceased by time people started breaking windows,” McAllister said.
Judge John Westhafer had questions about McAllister’s theory. He noted the original deposition given by Bunch stated she awoke to the child laughing and calling her name. McAllister said Bunch might have imagined it or it was right before he passed out. Westhafer also questioned McAllister’s timeline for Anthony’s death, wondering if he was deceased before the ceiling dropped. She said he could have been reeling from the carbon monoxide and then finished off when the burst of gas entered the room as the ceiling fell.
The second expert extended McAllister’s theory. Jack Malooly, an expert fire investigator for the ATF who participated in the investigations of the Oklahoma City bombing and the burning of the Pakistani parliament building, testified the fire was not arson. He said the photos from the fire’s aftermath show the devastation suffered by the trailer was caused by flash over. He explained that flash over is an event that happens after a fire starts. The smoke and hot gases fill a room from top to bottom, like an inverted bathtub. As smoke fills the air, the gases move downward, causing combustion of other materials. As other materials in the room fuel the fire, the hot gases continue to fill the room and eventually everything is on fire, he said. An accelerant is not needed for this effect, it only speeds up the process, he testified.
The fire investigators’ conclusion, he said, showed a lack of education in science. Flash over was not a widely recognized science in the fire community during the mid-90s, which led to misinterpretation of the fire. Flash over, he said, could explain all the burn patterns and damage done to the mobile home.
Malooly concluded the cause could not be determined, and fire investigators at the time of the incident were wrong, he stated in court and in his affidavit. He offered two possible causes - electrical fire or the child playing with matches or lighters.
Safer, in his closing arguments, said these explanations and new scientific methods obviously prove the state had no case.
“Everything the state relied on, every single one, was wrong because they didn’t understand flash over,” Safer said.
He noted the basis of the verdict was wrong because no one understood the science behind the fire. His experts, he said, proved there was nothing left for the state.
“You’ve heard from the world’s top experts, literally, on this case. Let a jury hear that evidence,” Safer concluded.
Smith said he stood by the trial record, and the experts did not debunk the state’s evidence.
“All four experts, though draped in different clothing, reached the same conclusion as Tom Hulse (the original defense’s expert),” Smith said.
When all is said in done, he noted, there is still the human side, a variable all the experts widely ignored.
“Both she and Tony were in the same bedroom at the same time, and she escaped,” Smith said. “What that means is that little guy died a very slow and painful death...There was no significant attempt from his mother to rescue him.”
The two sides will now submit their findings to Westhafer, who will have 90 days to return a decision. Smith said the state can only wait to see what happens. Safer was satisfied with the proceedings and hopeful his client will soon receive a second chance in court.
“I think we had a very fair hearing,” Safer said. “There was a lot of hard scientific material that proves Kristine did not commit this crime, and I hope the jury gets to hear it.”
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