Baye told investigators that when he looks back on the events of the night a rash of fires terrorized Northampton, his actions seem to be those of a different person.
Anthony P. Baye.Updates stories posted Thursday at 10:57 a.m., 1:15 p.m. and 2:15 p.m.
NORTHAMPTON – Anthony P. Baye told investigators that when he looks back on the events of Dec. 27, 2009, his actions seem to be those of a different person.
“It’s like it’s somebody else,“ Baye tells state police fire investigator Michael Mazza and state police Sgt. Paul Zipper in a video of his Jan. 4, 2010, interrogation that was played Thursday in Hampshire Superior Court.
Police interviewed Baye, 26, for more than 10 hours that day, after identifying him as a suspect in the Dec. 27, 2009 rash of firesthat terrorized Northampton. His lawyers are seeking to exclude evidence from that interview, saying that Baye was denied his right to a lawyer. They have also moved to suppress information gathered by two police officers who stopped Baye on the rainy night of the fires while he was driving around in his Toyota Camry.
Those officers noted that Baye appeared to be soaking wet and had alcohol on his breath. His defense team maintains they lacked probable cause to stop him. Judge Constance Sweeney will determine how much, if any, of the evidence will be admissible at Baye’s trial, which is scheduled to begin on Sept. 20.
After hours of questioning by Mazza and Zipper, Baye admitted to setting some of the fires, but said he had no recollection of others. When he woke up the following morning, Baye said, he asked himself how he could have done the deeds of the previous night.
“What was I doing last night?“ he recalled thinking, “Like, why would I do that?“
Previously, Baye admitted to Mazza and Zipper that the fire at 17 Fair St. that took the lives of Paul Yeskie, 81, and his son, Paul Yeskie, Jr., 39, was a mistake. However, he subsequently denied any memory of starting it. Baye said he “kind of“ remembered a box on the porch of the house where Mazza suggested the Fair Street fire started.
“Maybe, vividly there was a box,“ he said.
Baye also denied setting previous fires in the neighborhood, which had been plagued by suspicious blazes for several years. At one point, Mazza tells Baye he suspects him of setting a prior fire on Hawley Street, but Baye says he knows nothing about it.
Zipper is shown telling Baye that investigators who spoke with some of his friends believe he has a history of lighting fires. He cited a fire near a dike in Northampton that Baye’s friends mentioned. Baye dismissed it as “stupid kid stuff.“
Baye told investigators he had 13 beers that night, and suggested his actions were due to the alcohol.
“It must have been the booze,“ he says.
Mazza and Zipper ultimately got Baye to initial locations on a map of Northampton where he admitted setting fires. In the ensuing down time, the investigators are seen trying to puzzle out his motives.
Baye told the officers he was not abused as a child and did not act out of anger. He also said he did not stay to watch any of the fires, he said. However, Baye told Mazza and Zipper that he suffers from inexplicable bouts of anxiety that cause his hands and feet to sweat. He described sweating through his clothes in middle school during such episodes.
“I always wanted to find an answer to that,“ he says.
Mazza and Zipper tell Baye that such information is useful in their work analyzing arsons.
“(What you told me) will help me tomorrow,” Mazza says.
But Baye’s lawyers, David P. Hoose and Thomas Lesser, contend that Mazza and Zipper strong-armed their client into confessing. In his cross-examination of Mazza, Hoose asked if he and Zipper were specially selected to interview Baye.
“You’re the confession guy, aren’t you?“ Hoose asked. “At that point, your goal is to get a confession.“
Mazza denied telling Baye he would have to shoot him if he tried to escape. The defense plans to present an expert witness on coerced confessions when the pretrial hearing resumes on June 8.
Baye, who lived with his parents on Hawley Street near the fires, faces two counts of first degree murder and some 40 other crimes in connection with 15 separate fires set that night. During their interview with Baye, Mazza and Zipper repeatedly assured him they did not believe he intended to hurt anyone. Mazza told Baye the Yeskies died because they had modified their house so that the front door was their only exit.
“They couldn’t get out of there on a good day, let alone a bad day,“ he said.
Mazza also called the Yeskies “hoarders,” suggesting that the fire in their house spread so quickly because of all the stuff they accumulated. He also noted that mutual aid from Amherst did not arrive at Fair Street until 15 minutes after the alarm, a time gap Mazza called “inexcusable.“
The day-long interrogation ends with Baye’s arrest by Northampton police Det. Craig Kirouak. Mazza explains to Baye that he will be arraigned in Northampton District Court and later indicted in superior court.
