Coatesville man held for 2d time on arson charges
A 23-year-old Coatesville man allegedly compelled by voices to set fires was held for trial yesterday for the second time on arson charges.
A 23-year-old Coatesville man allegedly compelled by voices to set fires was held for trial yesterday for the second time on arson charges.
George Donkewicz appeared before District Judge Grover E. Koon, who concluded that charges related to four fires in Coatesville should advance to Chester County Court.
Donkewicz was first charged with arson on Dec. 9 after police said they recognized him in a surveillance video that showed him setting a trash fire in the unit block of Strode Avenue.
When he was interviewed, Donkewicz confessed to starting the trash fire as well as a fatal blaze two days earlier in the same block that trapped Irene Kempest, 83, a widow who had survived imprisonment in a World War II German work camp, the criminal complaint said.
Donkewicz, who has been held without bail since Dec. 9, also admitted he set four other fires, police said: on June 18, 2007, in the 300 block of Charles Street; June 16, 2008, in the unit block of West Fifth Avenue; Aug. 22, 2008, in the 300 block of Lemon Street; and Nov. 12, 2008, in the 200 block of Madison Street.
Yesterday, Coatesville Police Detective Kevin Campbell testified that the nearly nine-month delay before the second set of charges was filed last month occurred for two reasons. Besides waiting for a damage report from one of the insurance companies, investigators were detoured by other arsons, he said.
During the hour-long proceeding, Donkewicz listened with a furrowed brow as Assistant District Attorney Thomas Ost-Prisco presented testimony about the four fires from investigators, who described blazes that endangered residents and firefighters, and were extinguished minutes before they would have spread to other homes.
No injuries occurred, but the fires caused an estimated $130,000 in damages, the complaint said.
Donkewicz, who was represented by Assistant Public Defender Stuart R. Crichton, periodically turned in his seat to scrutinize the courtroom observers or look at the clock on the wall above him.
"Voices in his head were telling him to set these fires and kill people," Campbell testified that Donkewicz told him.
Donkewicz is one of six defendants accused of setting 70 fires in the Coatesville area during a 14-month outbreak of arson. A January blaze destroyed most of the 300 block of Fleetwood Street and prompted intervention by Gov. Rendell.
A task force of local, state, and federal authorities was set up, and Coatesville received $500,000 in state aid to pay for police and fire overtime.
The investigation continues, but charges have been filed in fewer than half of the 70 cases. Authorities say arson is a difficult crime to solve because evidence frequently is burned.