Jury starts deliberations in arson trial

UPDATE (12:30 a.m.): Judge Ohmer dismissed the jury for the night around midnight, without a verdict. Deliberation will resume Wednesday morning at 10a.m.

The jury started deliberating around 1:30p.m. Tuesday afternoon, meaning they have been working for about 10.5 hours.

ORIGINAL: The jury in an arson trial of a Columbia businessman began deliberating Tuesday afternoon after passionate closing arguments.

Mehrdad Fotoohighiam was charged with first-degree arson, conspiracy to commit first-degree murder and attempted first-degree murder, but his trial this week is only on the arson charge.

Fotoohighiam is accused of paying an employee $500 in December 2014 to set fire to Marcia Green’s home. A jury acquitted the employee, James Hall, in July 2018. Green was awarded more than $2.75 million in a civil case last September for her injuries and damage to her property.

The seventh day of the trial started out with two more witnesses called by the defense, a real estate agent and a dermatologist.

The real estate agent said the property would be worth more if it did not have trailers on it, and the dermatologist testified about the difference between singeing and burning of eyebrows and eyelashes.

Philip Groenweghe, a special prosecutor called in from St. Charles County, began his closing statements by saying Fotoohighiam was a ” textbook example ” of a person tampering with evidence and messing with witness testimonies.

He said the defendant was a ” master manipulator, ” but ” not as clever as he thinks he is. ”

Fotoohighiam smiled during Groenweghe’s closing remarks.

The state attempted to defend the credibility of the witnesses, which the defense continually attacked during the duration of the trial.

” Would you expect angels to be witnesses to a plan that was hatched in hell? ” Groenweghe asked the jury.

The state also brought up that Fotoohighiam hid in his attic for nearly eight hours while the police attempted to arrest him.

” Innocent people don’t hide, ” Groenweghe said.

The defense attorney, Scott Rosenblum, started his closing statements by continuing his attack on the credibility of the witnesses and the police investigation, calling it a ” parade of convicts, drug addicts and a police officer who messed up the investigation. ”

Rosenblum attacked the investigation by the Columbia Police Department, saying it was “dangerously bad” and “the type that puts innocent people in jail.”

He said the police did not investigate Green at all, even though he believed there was more than enough evidence.

The jury has multiple options for a conviction, ranging from first-degree arson with serious injury to second-degree arson without serious injury.