"The nurse asked if I wanted her to give it to police and I gave her a thumb up."Įvansville Police Department Detective John Pieszchalski testified Wednesday that firefighters tossed the burned baby stroller outside while fighting the blaze and that he found it there and preserved it. "I wrote down 'Christopher Compton did this,'" Taylor said. Taylor said he had a breathing tube in his throat and the first thing he did was motion for a nurse to bring him pen and paper. "The next thing I remember was I woke up in a burn ward in Indianapolis." "I remember turning to Michael and saying there's no way we can get them. Taylor said he and Lankford ran to the front door and went inside, making it part way up the stairs before realizing that even if he could get up he wouldn't be able to get back out. Lankford said he went out the window too and that Vacha hung Sierah out the window. Taylor testified that he opened a living room window to drop out in hopes that he could then catch the girls - but he landed on concrete steps below, injuring his head. "Flames were already all over the walls and stairway and everything," he said. Lankford said he opened the apartment door and was immediately hit with a blast of heat and smoke. Taylor and Lankford testified that Keri Jones smelled smoke soon after Compton left. Owen said she passed Compton on the stairs as they left the building and that he was visibly drunk, swaying when he attempted to stand. A copy of her receipt with that time was among Wednesday's evidence. She said she took her daughters to the nearby Buy-Low grocery store and checked out at 4:33 p.m. Owen's testimony placed the start of the fire within a 13-minute window between when she left the building at 4:20 p.m., and at 4:33 p.m. He said she told him Compton was mad because he wanted to take the girls with him but she wouldn't allow it because she thought he was too drunk. Outside the presence of the jury, Taylor said he asked Jones about the conversation after Compton left the apartment. Taylor testified that he heard Jones reply "Whatever, stupid," to Compton's threat. He said Compton was drinking from a bottle of E&J brandy. However, Taylor said he walked into the kitchen and saw Jones and Compton arguing at the kitchen table. He said Compton had been there that afternoon visiting the girls in the building's hallway. Taylor, 46, testified that he is engaged to Jones' sister, Candice Owen, and that he was at the apartment on the afternoon of the fire. Vacha testified that he was able to lean out and drop Sierah to Michael Lankford and Taylor, but when he reached for Jazmine he couldn't find her in the smoke-filled apartment. Michael Lankford, Taylor, Vacha and 3-year-old Sierah Jones escaped the blaze by jumping out of a second-story window. Michael Lankford said he lived in the apartment with his father, Donald Lankford, and his nephew, Dustin Vacha, and Jones and her daughters had been staying with them until she could get her own place. because of his drinking and his arguing with Jones. The testimony came after another witness, on Tuesday, testified that Compton said he started the fire by lighting his coat and putting it in a baby stroller in the hallway inside the front door.Īn earlier witness on Wednesday, Michael Lankford, testified that Keri Jones had dated Compton off and on for several years and that Compton had been like a father to her twin daughters, who called him "daddy." He said Jones was in a relationship with someone else, but that it was not unusual for Compton to visit the girls.īut Michael Lankford also said Compton was not supposed to come inside the second-floor apartment at 29 W. He said he heard Compton say: "If you and the girls don't come with me now I'm going to burn this mother (expletive) to the ground." Taylor testified that he walked in on Keri Jones and Compton arguing in the kitchen. Those who died in the fire were: Jazmine Jones - the young girl - her mother Keri Jones, 28, and 76-year-old Donald Lankford. Scott Taylor testified he barely escaped the March 17, 2014, fire that killed a 3-year-old girl and two others.
FIRE IN COMPTON TRIAL
Christopher Compton reportedly threatened to burn down an apartment building on West Franklin Street just moments before it caught fire, a witness at Compton's murder trial said on Wednesday.
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