Kurt Steidley once asked a now-former business partner how much gas there should be to blow up a building, the former partner told a Cole County jury Thursday.
Max Parsons testified in the second day of Steidley's trial for second-degree arson, for a New Year's Day 2011 fire at Everhart's Sporting Goods on Missouri Boulevard in Jefferson City.
Steidley, 53, Knob Noster, said in a videotape recorded for insurance investigators - and played for the jurors Wednesday - that he had closed the business the week before the fire because of lagging sales and poor revenues.
Parsons had done plumbing work at some of Steidley's other businesses, and testified Thursday he was at his office on that Jan. 1 evening when he was surprised by a phone call from Steidley.
Parsons said Steidley told him he had been inside the business that New Year's Day and thought he smelled gas.
Parsons told Steidley if he had the equipment with him, he should shut off the gas - then call him back when he found out what was going on.
When Steidley called Parsons back, he said nothing about shutting off the gas, but instead told Parsons he had fallen off a shelf in the building and hit his head.
He also said Steidley reported he wasn't sure how he had gotten back into his truck.
Parsons testified he was shocked to learn about the fire days later.
When he called Steidley to ask about it, Parsons told the jury that Steidley said not to tell anyone that he had been inside the business before the fire began. During that call, Stiedley told Parsons the fire was started by a disgruntled customer, who knocked him out and then put him in the truck.
In the video jurors watched Wednesday, Steidley said he was last inside the business on Dec. 30, 2010. After spending Jan. 1 on his farm - where he fell and struck his head - Steidley told insurance officials he went by the store that evening and smelled gas only in the front of the building. He claimed he left after Parsons said if he couldn't smell it in other areas it probably wasn't a big deal.
Parsons told jurors Thursday that he had been questioned by authorities after the fire and didn't tell them all that happened.
He also said he was subpoenaed to testify before a grand jury, and Steidley urged him to plead the Fifth Amendment, and that they later would come up with an alibi.
Thursday's testimony also
included statements from Drew Buersmeyer, a Westphalia man who had purchased a number of items at Everhart's as he was trying to set up his own business.
Before the store's December 2010 closing, Buersmeyer said he quarrelled with the store manager over a safe on which he had made a down payment for purchase. He told the jury the quarrel happened when he returned to complete the purchase and take the safe home, but the store manager told him the safe already had been sold.
Buersmeyer said the manager wasn't going to give him back the money he had put down - and that he and the manager talked for several hours before Buersmeyer eventually got his money returned. Buersmeyer testified he did not know Steidley, but Steidley had told Parsons that a disgruntled customer named Drew may have hit him on the head on the evening of Jan. 1, while he was at the business before the fire.
When asked where he was that day, Buersmeyer said he had spent the early part of the day in Fulton where he had been picked up for a DWI. He later was taken by relatives back to Osage County for a family holiday dinner.
Jurors on Thursday also heard more audio and video testimony from Steidley, made during insurance depositions last year.
In them, Steidley said he did not know how the fire started, didn't do anything himself that would have started the fire and had no knowledge of anything in the building that could have started the fire.
He said he couldn't remember if he told investigators that he had smelled gas the evening of Jan. 1.
Jurors also have heard from a number of fire officials about their investigation into the fire's cause.
On Thursday, ATF Special Agent Ryan Zorns said his investigation concluded that the fire started in a storage room between the warehouse area and archery shop near the center of the building. There was no electrical service in the area, so that helped to rule out an accident causing the fire.
Although testing could not confirm it, Zorns said it was his belief that an incendiary liquid was introduced near an open flame.
The drip leg of an overhead heater in the area - supposed to catch condensation and debris to keep it from going into the heater - also was removed.
Zorns said there were no scratches on the drip leg when it was found on plywood shelves, near some boxes with business records. The shelving where the drip leg was found also was where the fire had started.
But, Zorns also said, no fingerprints were found on the drip leg, adding the fire started near floor level and not near where the drip leg would have been located.
He said natural gas never contributed to the fire, which caused an estimated $500,000 in losses.
The trial continues this morning. If convicted, Steidley could face up to seven years in prison.