An associate professor at Fort Lewis College was found guilty Friday of setting fire to the chip aisle at south City Market in Durango
The Oct. 5, 2019, blaze resulted in more than $76,000 in lost merchandise at the grocery store.
Bradley Clark, 48, remained composed as 6th Judicial District Judge Suzanne Carlson read the three guilty verdicts. He eventually sat down, hung his head and let out an audible sigh as the jury exited the courtroom.
He was found guilty of second-degree arson, attempt to commit first-degree arson and criminal mischief resulting in $20,000 to $100,000 in damage. He faces probation or up to six years in prison.
Sentencing is set for 11 a.m. Oct. 28 in District Court.
Clark remains free until then. He must report Monday to the probation department.
The five-day trial started Monday. It had 14 jurors, including two alternates. Three men and nine women deliberated almost four hours before reaching a verdict about 7 p.m. Friday.
The fire was started about 8:05 p.m. in Aisle 7 of the grocery store. The blaze required a fire extinguisher, set off a sprinkler system, triggered the fire alarm and created a haze of smoke inside the store.
During closing arguments Friday, prosecutors said the evidence speaks for itself; defense lawyers said no one can say for sure who set the fire.
Prosecutors asked jurors to be meticulous with the evidence, saying they won’t have any doubt that Clark started the fire if they look at all the facts.
Video surveillance shows Clark pushing a cart from one location to next, collecting two kinds of canned chili, lemons, hot dogs, sausages, buns, cheese and enchiladas. At the end of his shopping trip, he goes down Aisle 7, disappears off camera for about a minute, and then returns to the front of the store to check out.
A shadow of Clark and his cart can be seen near the point of ignition for about 46 seconds, the amount of time prosecutors said it took to use a cigarette lighter to start a bag of tortilla chips on fire.
But Clark never purchased anything from Aisle 7. And prosecutors said if jurors look closely, they can see Clark pull a lighter out of his pocket before entering the aisle.
“He didn’t have a lawful purpose in Aisle 7,” said Sean Murray, appellate deputy district attorney, during closing arguments. “He had a criminal purpose in Aisle 7.”
Defense attorneys said police made a rush to judgment, and prosecutors “cherry picked and edited” evidence to fit their narrative.
“This case is a wild goose chase,” said Durango defense lawyer Katie Whitney.
She faulted a police detective for writing in a search warrant that Clark’s feet could been seen on video near the point of ignition, when in fact his feet can’t be seen. And she faulted prosecutors for piecing together surveillance video to create a narrative that omitted specific details, such as what time the fire started.
“The evidence has been consistently overstated, the evidence has been consistently misstated,” Whitney said in her closing argument.
She said after five days of testimony, jurors still don’t know when the fire started, how long the fire lasted or who started the fire.
“We’re basing this on shadows and reflections,” she said, referring to the video surveillance. “We are not basing this on fact.”
Defense lawyers tried to raise suspicion around another man who was in the aisle shortly after Clark and reported the fire to a cashier clerk. But prosecutors said the man had both hands full and was near the point of ignition for only 1 to 2 seconds – not long enough to ignite the blaze.
Clark went to self-checkout stand No. 5, where he could watch the commotion, Murray said. He was also seen pulling up the hoodie on his sweatshirt while checking out. He paid with a debit card and used a City Market value card, which allowed detectives to identify him.
“He made mistakes. He was sloppy,” Murray said.
In addition to having a good vantage point to watch the chaos, an intercom announcement was made requesting customers to exit the store, an employee could be seen hauling a fire extinguisher to the scene and a fire alarm was sounding throughout the store, said Deputy District Attorney Vance Davis.
But when police executed a search warrant about 10:30 p.m. the next night and asked if Clark was aware of the City Market fire, he responded by saying “he read about it in the newspaper,” Davis said.
Defense lawyers also downplayed a previous arrest Clark faced on suspicion of starting a dumpster fire Sept. 12, 2007, at his townhome complex.
Whitney said the case resulted in no formal charges, and the case was dismissed.
Clark was briefly considered a suspect in another fire that occurred in 2008 at FLC. In that case, someone set fire to a professor’s door, but ultimately, there wasn’t enough evidence to make an arrest, a college spokeswoman said in a previous interview.
shane@durangoherald.com
