The witness, Sean Swider, acknowledged he once painted obscene graffiti on a police officer's home.
Michael F. JacquesSPRINGFIELD - Michael F. Jacques burst into laughter after seeing the rubble of the Macedonia Church of God in Christ a few days after it was gutted by a gasoline-fed fire, a friend testified on Tuesday.
Riding along Tinkham Road on Nov. 7, 2008, Jacques and co-defendant Benjamin F. Haskell saw the wreckage of the church set off by huge spotlights, according to Sean Swider, of Springfield, a passenger in the car.
“They were laughing, kind of chuckling,” Swider, 26, testified during the second day of Jacques' civil rights arson trial in U.S. District Court.
“Mikey said it must have taken 15 gallons of gas,” Swider added.
Following guilty pleas from Haskell and Thomas A. Gleason, Jacques is the lone defendant in the racially charged arson case. Like his alleged accomplices, Jacques was living with his parents in Sixteen Acres near the church at the time of the crime.
Taking the stand as a prosecution witness, Swider recounted his dealings with Jacques after the church fire, and his recruitment by investigators to secretly record their conversations.
The fire - set several hours after Barack Obama’s election - destroyed the nearly completed new home of the Macedonia Church, a predominately black parish. Within hours, the crime attracted national attention, and a task force of city, state and federal investigators was convened to solve it.
But Swider, a chef at a Boston Road restaurant, said he knew nothing about the fire until Haskell and Jacques gave him a ride home from work three days later.
When he asked who did it, Haskell and Jacques said they didn’t know; but as Swider jumped out of the car a few minutes later, Haskell turned and said “we did it,” Swider testified.
The next day, Swider relayed the conversation to a friend, who called the police; by Sunday, investigators confronted Swider at his job, and pressured him into recording conversations with his two friends, he said.
Over the next few days, Haskell disclosed somewhat cryptically that the church arsonists used 15 gallons of gasoline purchased at a Pride gas station, and Jacques said he and Haskell poured five gallons of gasoline outside the church, Swider said.
During cross-examination, the witness acknowledged that Haskell and Jacques often exaggerated their exploits to seem tougher or cooler, and embraced a drinking-and-drugging lifestyle.
“You never knew when you could believe Ben Haskell?,” said defense lawyer Lori H. Levinson, of Great Barrington.
“Right,” Swider said.
Swider also owned up to his own misbehavior, conceding that he once painted obscene graffiti on the garage of a police officer. Referring to the graffiti, Levinson noted that Swider never felt the urge to turn himself in to police.
“No, they came and got me,” he said.
He also said his nickname - "Puffy" - was given by his boss at a previous restaurant, and arose from his once-frequent marijuana use.
Also Tuesday, an investigator for the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives said evidence of gasoline was found near the back door of the building, leading to the conclusion that it was arson.
Special agent Dixon Robin said other potential causes, including electrical malfunctions, a natural gas leak and lightening, were ruled out during the probe.