The Olympian: Arson case goes to jury [Waters trial]

http://www.theolympian.com/news/story/374365.html

Arson case goes to jury

Christian Hill
The Olympian

TACOMA — A jury will begin deliberations this morning in the trial of a
former Olympia resident accused of participating in an arson that
destroyed a University of Washington research center nearly seven years ago.

The government contends Briana Waters, 32, served as a lookout as four
co-conspirators broke into the UW's Center of Urban Horticulture and
placed an incendiary device that burst into flame around 3 a.m. on May 21,
2001. Waters, who now lives in Oakland, Calif., has denied involvement in
the arson and said she likely was asleep in Olympia when it occurred. She
was attending The Evergreen State College at the time.

She faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 35 years in prison, if convicted
of all crimes, including arson, conspiracy and use of a destructive device
during a crime of violence. Attorneys for the government and Waters used
their closing arguments Thursday in U.S. District Court in Tacoma to focus
on the testimony of two women who confessed to their role in the arson and
separately took the stand to identify Waters as a co-conspirator.

Prosecutors said the testimony of Jennifer Kolar, Lacey Phillabaum and
others corroborated physical evidence they could not know existed unless
they were telling the truth.

They said Waters' defense counsel had no factual evidence to undercut
their theory of Waters' involvement in the arson, leaving her to claim she
is telling the truth while everyone else is lying.

"Her lies tell you she's guilty," First Assistant U.S. Attorney Mark
Bartlett told the jurors. "She can't tell you a better story than this."

Waters' attorney, Robert Bloom, countered that the government's case was
built on the word of two women — whom he described as "criminals" — who
agreed to cooperate with prosecutors in exchange for lesser prison
sentences.

"She has lied in this very courtroom," Bloom said of Kolar, "and they're
asking you to rely on her to convict Briana Waters."

Bloom said both women had reasons to be bitter at Waters. Waters testified
that she turned down a sexual advance by Kolar and had a heated
confrontation with Phillabaum about Phillabaum's alleged sexual encounter
with Waters' then-boyfriend, Justin Soldondz.

Prosecutors allege Soldondz was part of the five-member team and is now a
fugitive. William Rodgers, a close friend of Waters and the apparent
ringleader in this and other arsons, committed suicide in an Arizona jail
cell shortly after his arrest in 2005.

"This woman is innocent," Bloom said. "She didn't do this. The evidence
that has been presented is not credible evidence."

Bartlett acknowledge that both women had a motive to cooperate with
prosecutors. What, he asked, was their motive in identifying Waters? To
conspire together to frame an innocent woman?

"That's just a bunch of garbage, and you know it," he told the jurors.

The attorneys also sparred over whether Waters' stop at Ralph's Thriftway
in Olympia about eight hours before the fire proved she had an alibi.

A record provided by her defense team shows Waters made a $13 purchase at
Ralph's at 7:12 p.m., and Bloom said she wouldn't have had time to get to
Seattle and meet the group at a restaurant before they drove to the UW
campus.

Prosecutors countered that Waters had time to arrive at the restaurant
between 8 and 9 p.m., the hour the two women testified the group gathered.
An FBI agent testified earlier in the day that he made the trip from the
grocery store to the Seattle restaurant Wednesday evening in 68 minutes.

"This is some kind of exculpatory evidence?" Bartlett asked, referring to
the receipt. "Don't be ridiculous."

But Waters' defense team held fast, documenting there was Interstate 5
construction and local road closures that evening that would have
lengthened the commute.

"It's not 68 minutes," Bloom said. "It's an hour and 68 minutes."

Waters asked her cousin to secure the rental car that she and other
co-conspirators drove to Seattle, telling him she would be able to move
some of her belongings from his home. The evening before the arson, Waters
asked to borrow the car because she was ill and needed to go to the
emergency room. Representatives of Providence St. Peter Hospital and
Capital Medical Center said they had no records of her going to their
emergency rooms. She later told her cousin she drove to Seattle to receive
treatment.

Soldondz's bank records show he withdrew $200 in cash on May 19, the day
the car was rented. Waters' cousin deposited $200 in cash — his lone cash
deposit of the year — several days later.

Prosecutors allege Waters was a member of a cell of the Animal Liberation
Front and Earth Liberation Front known as "The Family," whose members set
or attempted to set at least 17 fires between 1996 and 2001 throughout the
Northwest and in Colorado.

The group wanted to destroy corporate and government operations they
thought were harming the environment and animals, and prosecutors said
they targeted the UW research center under the mistaken belief that
genetic engineering of poplar trees was taking place there.

Another arson occurred on the same morning at an Oregon poplar farm,
allegedly by another five-member group of the ALF/ELF cell.

The center was rebuilt at a cost of $7 million and reopened three years ago.

Christian Hill covers the city of Lacey and military for The Olympian. He
can be reached at 360-754-5427 or chill@theolympian.com.