Arson case goes to jury

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.