After hearing six days of testimony, a Cole County jury should begin deliberating Kurt Steidley's fate today.
Both sides concluded their cases Tuesday, and this morning's session should begin with the jury panel hearing final instructions and closing arguments from Cole County Prosecutor Mark Richardson and defense attorney Chris Slusher of Columbia.
Then 12 of the 14 jurors will be asked to determine if Steidley, 55, of Knob Noster, is guilty of second-degree arson for setting the Jan. 1, 2011, fire that damaged a warehouse behind Everhart's Sporting Goods.
The prosecution rested its case Tuesday morning after showing the jury another segment of a video deposition Steidley gave in 2013, as part of a civil case involving the Cincinnati Insurance Co.
But Slusher wanted to tell the jurors they were "shown only 3½ hours" of what had been two video depositions totaling "over 10½ hours" of testimony and the jurors had "no context where that came from."
Circuit Judge Dan Green sustained Richardson's objection, blocking Slusher from making that statement.
During Steidley's first trial in January 2014, then-defense attorney Shane Farrow of Jefferson City called both Steidley and his wife, Lynnette, to testify.
But Green scheduled a new trial after making a mistake in blocking, then allowing, some evidence in that first trial.
In this week's second trial, Slusher didn't call either of the Steidleys to the stand, opting instead for seven witnesses testifying to Steidley's reputation as an "honest," "law-abiding," and "upstanding" man in the Warrensburg-Knob Noster area.
Older siblings Sue Eberwein of Jefferson City and Steve Steidley of Tyler, Oklahoma, both testified their brother Kurt - the youngest of the five children - made regular trips to Jefferson City to take their mother grocery shopping.
"Especially since Dad passed away," Steve Steidley testified, Kurt would "make sure to make an extra effort to get here every one or two weeks."
Eberwein testified their mother has health issues, but "gets around pretty good for an 87-year-old person."
Eberwein said she told Kurt Steidley about the fire that Saturday night, after getting phone calls from a friend and from her daughter, who had seen the smoke as she was leaving work at the nearby Hobby Lobby store.
Under questioning from Richardson, both said Steidley had not told them he had been at the store around 7 p.m. that day and had smelled natural gas at the building.
Johnson County Auditor Chad Davis, who also has an auction business, became friends with Steidley after watching him help young 4-H members at a benefit livestock auction. Davis later helped auction the leftover inventory when Steidley closed and sold the Everhart's store in Clinton in 2009.
"Everybody in our community knows Kurt," Davis said.
Other witnesses testified about Steidley's attempts to sell the Everhart's building, or about problems they had with Drew Buersmeyer, an Everhart's customer Steidley had mentioned to investigators might have had a motive to set the New Year's Day fire.
Slusher said in his opening statement last week that investigators didn't focus enough on Buersmeyer as a suspect.
Jefferson City police officer Meredith Friedman testified she took a report about items taken from Buersmeyer's vehicle, including some guns, while it was parked outside the College Complex, a now-closed "after-hours" party spot on Industrial Drive. Steven Ellis, who worked security at the club, also testified about the Dec. 26, 2010, incident, that he "never saw anyone mess around with the car."
Doug Mead, now of Kansas City, was manager of the Staples store across the parking lot from Everhart's, and testified Buersmeyer spent eight hours in the Staples store a few days before the fire. "He and another friend were yelling across the store at each other," for much of that time, and Mead had to ask them to "act human."
But, under questioning from Richardson, none of the defense witnesses could connect their stories with the New Year's Day 2011 fire.
Second-degree arson is a Class C felony, with a punishment for a conviction including a prison sentence of up to seven years.