In his initial interviews after a New Year's Day 2011 fire damaged his closed business, investigators said Kurt Steidley told them he last was in Jefferson City on Dec. 30.
But the eight-woman, six-man Cole County jury hearing Steidley's trial on a second-degree arson charge was told Monday that cell phone tracking showed Steidley, who lives in Knob Noster, used his phone from Warrensburg to Jefferson City and back again on that Saturday.
In a video deposition made in 2013, Steidley said he'd driven to Jefferson City late that New Year's Day afternoon to take his mother shopping.
Steidley was the sole owner of Everhart's Sporting Goods, 2436 Missouri Blvd., which he'd closed on Dec. 24, 2010. The Jan. 1, 2011, fire was reported in the storage area at the back of the business about 7:45 p.m.
FBI agent John Hauger testified he's one of 40 agents nationwide who "assist state local and federal department to determine where a cell phone has been."
Using tower location information supplied by cell telephone services like AT&T and T-Mobile, and a customer's billing records, Hauger can generate maps showing which tower accepted a cell phone connection at the beginning of a call, or text message, and the "general area" that phone was in at the time.
And that information showed Steidley made a series of calls on Jan. 1, 2011 - including some from Jefferson City.
Hauger told Steidley's lawyer, Chris Slusher of Columbia, that he was asked to make the maps "in the spring of this year," and at least one of the maps used in court Monday "was prepared (Sunday) night."
Max Parsons, a Warrensburg plumber who worked for Steidley several times, testified Monday that Steidley called him that Saturday, in the "early evening," and asked, "How much gas would it take to blow up a building?"
Parsons said Steidley was at Everhart's and reported smelling gas "coming from the back of the building," and that "he thought it was coming from some unit heater. I said if you can't shut it off at the (outside) meter, there was a valve at the unit to shut it off."
Parsons said Steidley promised to call back and report on the situation - when he didn't, Parsons called him, and said Steidley "said he didn't get it shut off, that he had climbed on a shelf, fell and hit his head."
Several days after the fire, Parsons said, Steidley told him "he thought Drew (Buersmeyer) had knocked him off the shelf, drug him to the truck, then set the fire."
Everhart's store manager, Jeff Lister, has testified Buersmeyer had spent around $30,000 to $40,000 on merchandise, but that some of his credit card charges had been denied - and that Buersmeyer had been unhappy that the store had sold a safe Buersmeyer had reserved for his own purchase.
But Buersmeyer told the jury last week he "was baffled by" the accusation he had set the fire.
After voicing his concern about the safe, Buersmeyer said: "I got my $100 back and I left with no bad feelings."
Parsons also testified Steidley urged him not to talk about their New Year's Day phone calls, and if investigators asked, Parsons should say they talked about "cattle," an interest they shared.
Parsons did say when first contacted by an ATF agent in March 2011, but later told federal investigators that first comment was a lie.
Slusher noted Parsons was promised immunity from federal charges when he testified before the Cole County grand jury in September 2012.
Investigators have testified the fire was set under shelving that contained copies of business records.
Nikki Poirier of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) testified Monday her analysis of the last four years of Everhart's operations showed it "lost $92,700 for 2010, and showed a profit only for two months (September and October) during the "Going Out of Business' sale," and that the company's "assets diminished by $500,000 or so" during the four-year period.
Steidley said in the video deposition the business began with strong sales in 2004, but the recession that began in 2007-08 and the opening of the Bass Pro store in Columbia caused a business downturn.
Darrell Gordon, a Jefferson City real estate and construction owner, testified he started working with Steidley in 2009 to lease a part of the building or sell the whole thing - a sale which happened, ultimately, after the fire.
Missouri Valley Outdoors and Missouri Valley Archery now occupy the building.