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on a bitter cold night a family home went up in Flames killing one man and leaving a second person
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injured a witness blamed a kerosene heater local investigators suspected arson forensic science was needed to
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sort through the contradictions was this an accid or cold blooded murder [Music]
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the weather in Jackson Georgia is usually warm most of the year but in January of 2003 there was an
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unusual cold snap with temperatures below freezing Citrus Growers used kerosene heaters to save their orange
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crop and Jean and Jim long used a kerosene heater in the workshop of their home so the pipes wouldn't freeze but
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something went terribly wrong when fireman arrived the house was totally Ablaze Jean long had escaped the
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fire but her husband Jim was trapped inside my father-in-law came to the door to wake us he said
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that he said there's a fire at your dad's house and it's bad and it was Eng Gul in
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blanks very shocking moment firemen searched the area around the home but there was no sign that Jim
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had escaped I just thought my dad would come walking out but no the Long's home was attached to a
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workshop Jim used to store the equipment for his tree trimming business it too was on fire
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after the fire was put out the firefighters cut through the metal siding they found the body of
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53-year-old Jim long almost like disbelief that was going on at that time just real hard to
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almost like it was a dream that you wanted to wake up from Jean was taken to the hospital
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where she was treated for minor scrapes and bruises one of the bruises was was on her
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chin she told police that her husband tried to fill their kerosene heater with fuel and then there was an explosion he
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was covered in Flames she tried to put the fire out with her hands her gloves caught
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fire in a panic Jean said she ran from the workshop into their home to call the fire
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department at the fire scene investigators found the remnants of the kerosene heater but the plastic fuel can was
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found outside the workshop door in perfect condition inconsistent with Jean's
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story and major Mike over believed that the position of Jim's Body was inconsistent with most fire victims and
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it appeared that his legs were outstretched and his arms were above his head it appeared to me the way someone
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would be positioned if they had been dragged into a particular spot or carried that was the first thing that I
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noticed that they were not in a fetal type position that that you see um in fires in addition Overby found Visual
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Evidence of poor patterns around Jim's Body the type of patterns which result
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from the use of an accelerant that to him suggested that James long had been lying on the floor
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and gasoline or an accelerant had been poured over him intentionally and he had been set a
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fire and Jim's autopsy revealed even more evidence that he was unconscious before the fire started
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[Music] during Jim Long's autopsy the medical examiner found something suspicious
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there wasn't as much dirt soot and smoke damage in his lungs as one would expect
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in a fire victim Mr long did not have enough of a chemicals that are found in the blood after a person dies of smoke
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inhalation for that to have caused his death he had breathed some smoke he had soot in his throat but he had not
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breathed enough smoke to kill him and Jim also suffered a fractured skull Dr Bill bass a world famous
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forensic anthropologist at the University of Tennessee was asked for his opinion we have three fractures
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irradiating out from the same Source The Source being the hole that is in the skull that is an indication that there's
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been blunt force trauma there is not due to the fire the cause of death was determined to be thermal injuries and
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blunt force head trauma his death was listed as a homicide so you're behind homicide
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investigator major Michael Overby asked Jean long to explain what happened on the night of the
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fire Jean said her husband was filling the heater with kerosene when it exploded you said that he relid it
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inside well he didn't reely that he would ref fuel in it he was putting fuel
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in it with what a kerosene with what container it was yet the red plastic fuel can was
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found outside the workshop all right how did it get back outside I don't know and over be noticed the Jim's arms
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and legs were outstretched when he was found underneath Jim's Body were several
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aerosol cans there was one under his head there was one under his right leg and another
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one up under his back and that appeared odd that appeared um to me something that could
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be used to accelerate the damage of the body in a fire patterns on the concrete floor
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around the body were also suspicious these are called pore patterns right right here absolutely
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nothing else on the planet makes these marks nothing this is what it leaves especially in concrete when an
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accelerant such as gasoline is poured on something you know what I mean Jean also said she called the fire
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department from a phone in the house but investigators found the outside door was
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locked if Jean locked it on her way out police saw this as evidence that she was
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in no hurry to save her husband her husband is on fire burning in this building she runs outside but she locks
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the door behind her see to me that's very important you think a jury's going to
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buy this I can tell you right now they won't major Overby asked Jean to take a
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polygraph test and she agreed she was asked Point Blank if she poured her husband with gasoline set him on fire
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she failed that question she failed if she was present when he was murdered investigators discovered that
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Jim was angry with his wife for spending so much time in Kansas each year visiting
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relatives there were also rumors that Jim may have been planning to leave Jean major Overby believes on the night
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night of the fire the couple may have been discussing a divorce which prompted an argument it's our theory that there
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was a domestic situation between Mr long and his wife um I believe that the abrasion on
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her chin came from him possibly slapping her and his skull fractures I believe was a result of her striking him in the
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head with some hard object over be believed Jean poured an accelerant on Jim set him
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on fire then inadvertently carried the fuel can out of the workshop when she left to call for help I felt like it was
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a strong circumstantial case felt like we had eliminated any other reasonable hypothesis for this
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death the day after her husband's funeral Jean long was charged with arson and Murder She didn't seem shock
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she made no statement at the time she acted like she was expecting it Jean told her lawyers there was an
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explosion in that workshop and that there must be evidence in the Ashes to prove
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[Music] it Jean Long's family hired defense attorneys Wade crumblyy and Barbara moon
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for what they feared would be a long difficult trial Barbara Moon met with Jean in the
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county jail she was a very broken woman started just twiddling her hands and shaking unbelievably I thought she was
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very genuine and I believed in her it's just that simple a week later Jean's Church
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managed to raise the money for her bail Jean's family insisted that her marriage to Jim was a happy
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one Jim's daughter from a previous marriage agreed I was glad he met somebody and that he was happy and that
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he wasn't going to be alone every time you seen Jim you seen Jean seen one you
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seen both of them they went everywhere together and Jean had no Financial motive Jim's life insurance amounted to
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less than $40,000 but local prosecutors were convinced this was an open and shut case
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her theory was she saw the opportunity to get rid of him and Port him and lit it and then made it seem or tried to
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tell everyone that it was an accident the defense asked John lentini a nationally known fire investigator for
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his opinion with respect to the quality of the fire investigation it ranks up there with the worst that I have ever
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seen and I have seen a lot of bad fire investigations in my day this was over the
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top local investigators suspected accelerance had been used to start the fire but lentini discovered that the
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workshop housed containers of fuel for Jim's tree trimming equipment in this
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shop we had vehicles and we had tanks of acetylene we had tanks of propane we had
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containers of liquid fuels he had chainsaws in there lots of papers clothing lots of
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combustibles and when it went up it just really went up and lentini disputed police claims
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that there were Poe patterns around Jim's Body he said the heat of the fire made
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such a determination impossible once you get to full room involvement you're going to get all
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kinds of patterns that are easily misinterpreted it happens all the time I've created them by mistake uh I've
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created them on purpose the homicide investigator thought that the position of Jim's Body
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was suspicious we felt like from the very beginning based on the way he was laying
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on his back with his arms stretched over his head and his legs straight out that
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he had been placed there but jean had always contended that while her husband was on fire he was
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flailing about was it possible that the Jim struck his head on the metal table nearby causing the fractured skull and
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knocking him unconscious I can tell you that there is a blow to the side of the head that
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caused fractures now who did that blow or how that blow got there I can't tell you could he fallen on the metal
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workbench yes he could have lentini believes the charge of arson and murder had been a rush to
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judgment and that the kerosene heater was to blame basically what you do is you fill this up with kerosene or diesel
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fuel you throw a wick of some kind down in there what happens when you have this
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Lake of Fire down in here is you're generating lots and lots of soot and that soot coats the inside and it itself
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will catch on fire like charcoal so if you don't allow this thing to cool down
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sufficiently that's pretty dangerous in a surprising discovery gas chromatography of the residue inside the
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heater fuel tank identified gasoline and not kerosene it takes more heat to ignite
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kerosene gasoline ignites at very low temperatures the difference in flammability between gasoline and
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kerosene is is just tremendous and I've worked on a lot of fires where people
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misfuel Ker en heaters with gasoline end up having big fires Jean said they were
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using the heater outside before they moved it indoors since a gallon of gasoline is
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equivalent to 20 sticks of dynamite when Jim poured it into the hot fuel tank it
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caused an explosion just as Jean described the residue of gasoline inside that smudge pot was the physical
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evidence and Mrs Long's story was the eyewitness evidence it fits together and
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she couldn't have faked that part the fuel canister found outside the workshop which investigators found so
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suspicious contained kerosene proving it played no role in the fire prosecutors still believe Jean long
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murdered her husband but which version would the jury believe [Music] when Jean long went on trial for her
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husband's murder prosecutor showed jurors the videotape of Jean's interrogation in which she contradicted
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herself and then he fell down in this floor but that's what you told me Miss
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Jan I'm just I'm trying to put together what you said and try to make it make
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sense and it don't it doesn't make sense to me no it doesn't so how can you
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expect it to make sense to me but the defense attorneys use the same tape to show something
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else major Overby employed a standard police technique when he ended the interrogation and left the room with the
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tape machine still running in this situation a suspect will often say something incriminating
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[Music] in this case she said something else oh God help [Music] me what major Overby had hoped that
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happened I think worked against him I think he was in hopes that she was going to say something to hurt her minate
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herself and what she did she reached out to God and started begging for help to give her the strength to
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endure that hostile interview the defense claimed that the fire was accidental that Jim long mistakenly
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filled the hot kerosene heater with gasoline causing the explosion Jean frantically tried to put
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it out and when she couldn't she ran to call for help at some point Jim struck his head
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on the workbench which fractured his skull and caused his death the defense offered no explanation
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for why Jean locked the door on her way out of the house except that it was force of habit something she did every
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time she left the house Jean long herself took the stand in her own defense she came across as
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completely genuine terrified about the prospect of what she was going through and terrified at reliving the moment of
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what happened that night the jury didn't hear about the results of the polygraph test polygraph
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examinations are in admissible they're in admissible for reason uh they're not
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reliable bottom line Jean's family says the medic she was taking may have been a
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contributing factor she was just really drugged up more or less she was on the pills the hospital had given her to help
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her stay calm and to kind of take in everything after 8 days of testimony the jury deliberated for just 3 hours before
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rendering their verdict they found Jean long not guilty of all charges this case never should have been
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brought they should have consulted an expert my training uh is in violent crime interpretation and crime
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scene um interpretation and and reconstruction to this day major Overby doesn't agree with the verdict or with
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John lentini's conclusions about the fire I believe 100% today as I did uh during the trial that that she killed
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her husband I believe that she got by with murder the unanswered question to me would
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be why the jury decided what they decided after the trial and the not- guilty verdict Gan long moved out of the
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state and is trying to put her life back together again she's still G she's finally being able
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to not concentrate on the trial and stuff and being able to work through her emotions the remnants of Jim and Jean
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Long's house and workshop are still standing a reminder that forensic science isn't only a tool to convict the
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guilty but to protect the innocent as well if I could keep this from happening to another family
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and so other people wouldn't have to go through what we went through what we need in our system of
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justice is for the state to have proof that it really is a set fire and they didn't have that here wasn't a case of
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charging the wrong person with a crime there was no crime at all it was an accident
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[Music] why [Music] [Music]