WESTFIELD – A city man who was arraigned in Westfield District Court on charges of burning a dwelling house and burning a motor vehicle saw those charges dismissed Friday, but only because he has been indicted and arraigned on the same charges in Springfield Superior Court.
A caller had reported a fire early in the morning of Saturday, Aug. 27, and responding firefighters had found a 2004 Pontiac Grand Am parked at a Pochassic Street address was fully involved in flames and also found that an adjacent dwelling was damaged by the heat of the fire.
The case was investigated by Det. Susan Figy who worked with State Trooper Michael Mazza of the Massachusetts Fire Marshal’s office and Deputy Fire Chief Patrick Kane.
Figy reported her investigation showed the burned vehicle was owned by a boyfriend of a resident of the address, who said that she had received, shortly before the fire, a text message from the father of her children, which advised her that something was going to happen.
That man was not immediately found but a friend of his, David W. Hawley, 22, of no fixed address, was interviewed by the three investigators and said that he and a friend, Luis M. Texeira Jr., 22, of 27 Collins St., had been together off and on that evening and had been drinking.
Hawthorne said that, as the two men were winding up their evening in the early hours of the morning, they were walking, Hawley thought, towards Texeira’s home on Collins Street. But he said, as they got near that address, Texeira said that he wanted to go to his former girlfriend’s house first.
Hawley told the investigators that when they reached Texeira’s former girlfriend’s residence, Texeira said that the vehicle in the driveway belonged to the woman’s former boyfriend.
Hawley said that he saw Texiera “walk into the yard and grab some kindling wood from over by the back fire pit area.” He said that he saw Texeira “put the wood under the car and light it on fire.”
Hawley said “When he saw that it didn’t light fast enough he went to the back of the yard and this is when he came up with the gas can and poured it under the car and on top of it.”
Hawley said “I didn’t expect him to do something like that. I just got out of court the other day and I’m trying to stay out of trouble for my kids.” He said when the gas ignited he “took off” and Texeira “ran towards his house.”
Hawley’s account is consistent with Mazza’s report on the fire.
Mazza reported that “the burn patterns on the exterior of the vehicle supported an exterior pour of an ignitable liquid” and went on to write “It is the opinion of this officer that the fire that burned the 2004 Pontiac Grand Am was incendiary in nature.”
Both Texeira and Hawley were arrested and arraigned following the arson investigation but with Texeira’s indictment his case was transferred to superior court, where harsher penalties may be imposed.
