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| Andrew Wells |
COLORADO OFFENDER INFORMATION
Source & Picture from: http://www.doc.state.co.us
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Investigators comb Vail fire scene
FROM:
www.vaildaily.com
Direct Source Link
An
Eagle man allegedly harassed his ex-girlfriend in 2012 for weeks before trying to burn down the building where he thought she was sleeping, residents said Tuesday. Authorities said
Andrew Wells, 31, was trying to avenge his broken heart when he allegedly set two fires in an
East Vail apartment complex where his ex-girlfriend was living. Ironically, she wasn't there when the fires were set, residents said.
Wells faces at least a half dozen felony and misdemeanor charges for allegedly setting two fires early Saturday. Wells was arrested Saturday and is being held in the Eagle County jail on a 765.000 USD bond.
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| District Attorney Mark Hurlbert |
Because one of the fires blocked the only escape route from a four-story apartment building, Wells could face an attempted murder charge for each person occupying the building when the fire was set, around 5 a.m. Saturday.
"He said he intended to scare the victim and force her to relocate out of Vail and to gain revenge against the victim for breaking his heart," said District Attorney Mark Hurlbert, citing the arrest affidavit.
Pattern of harassment
The harassment started around Labor Day, building residents said Tuesday. Days before Saturday's alleged arson fires, a Volkswagen Jetta burned in the night while it was parked outside an adjacent building.
"The investigation of the car fire found an accelerant in a place you wouldn't expect to find it," said Mike Vaughn, fire marshal with the Vail Fire Department.
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| VW Jetta |
Residents said that car fire started in the wheel well on the front passenger's side, residents said, and that the car was completely destroyed. The car did not belong to Wells' ex-girlfriend; it belonged to a female resident living in a different building, residents said. Police and fire investigators are trying to determine whether that car fire is tied to Wells and some of the other criminal activities in the apartment complex.
The sliding glass door leading to the apartment's fourth floor balcony had been shattered earlier this month when a rock was thrown through it. Tires on vehicles in the parking lot had been slashed and vehicles vandalized over the past few weeks, residents said. Wells' ex-girlfriend's car had been broken into repeatedly over the last few weeks, reports said. Vail Police had been keeping a close eye on the apartment complex for weeks, and had been there three or four times over the past several days, residents said.
Police close at hand
Police were close at hand at 5 a.m. Saturday with a resident on an upper floor in one building spotted someone on the berm along Bighorn Road in East Vail, throwing rocks at the neighboring building, Vaughn said. That resident called 911 and as he talked to dispatchers, he told them he smelled smoke. He went down the stairs and outside his building into the dark to take a look.
He walked about 90 feet across the grass and around to the front of the neighboring building, where he spotted the flames climbing up the exterior staircase, Vaughn said. That exterior staircase was the only escape route for a dozen apartments on the building's upper floors. Vail police were on the scene moments later and knocked down the 8-foot-high flames with fire extinguishers they carry in their patrol vehicles. Less than four minutes after that, an engine company from Vail's East Vail fire station extinguished the fire, which had begun to work its way up the inside of the staircase wall.
Chemical trail
Wells allegedly tried to set two fires, one on an exterior corner of a neighboring building, from which the resident called 911, and one on the exterior staircase of the building where Wells apparently thought his ex-girlfriend was. As Wells allegedly moved from one building to another, petroleum-based chemicals leaked from the can he carried from the spot of that first fire, investigators said. What appears to be gasoline leaked from the can, onto the grass across the lawn and parking lot, and to the exterior staircase where the second fire was set, officials said.
The leaking can left a trail of dead grass and gasoline stains between the two buildings.Vaughn said he could smell some sort of chemical accelerant as soon as he approached the stairwell to begin his investigation early Saturday morning. "I walked to within 20 feet of the stairwell and I could smell something that should not be there," Vaughn said.
Vaughn called
Jerry Means, an arson investigator with the Colorado Bureau of Investigation. Means brought Sadie, an arson dog trained to detect petroleum products. When Sadie finds something, and she often did Saturday, Means drops a yellow coin that says, "Sadie was here." On the other side is Means' name and contact information.
Wells allegedly drove from his home in Eagle to East Vail where the fires were set using gasoline as an accelerant. He drove back to his home in Eagle where he was arrested later Saturday, reports said. Wells faced two previous charges for violating a protection order in Massachusetts in 2007, and an Eagle County possession of marijuana case from 2009.
Wells told Judge
Katharine Sullivan he will be applying for the public defender for the charges that led to Saturday's arrest.
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Arsonist pleads guilty to attempted murder
FROM:
www.vaildaily.com
Direct Source Link
Andrew Wells admitted he tried to burn down two apartment buildings where seven people were sleeping, because his former girlfriend broke his heart.Wells, 32, pleaded guilty Wednesday to three felonies. He'll spend between 26 years and 48 years in state prison.
Wells sat with his head down, staring at a spot inches in front of him on the defendant's table, as Chief District Court Judge Tom Moorhead worked through the list of charges, asking Wells if he understood them.
Each time Wells answered,
"Yes, your honor."
"With that understanding what is your plea?" Moorhead asked as he again read through the list of felonies.
Wells softly spoken answered,
"Guilty" to each.
He'll be sentenced May 22nd 2013 at 2 p.m. (14:00)
His former girlfriend wasn't even in her apartment when he set the fires. But the woman was in the courtroom Wednesday, as she had been each time Wells was in court.
During Wells' videotaped confession, he told Vail Police Detective Justin Liffick,
"I'll talk."
Liffick replied,
"I'll listen."
The defense's hopes were dealt a death blow earlier when Judge Moorhead denied their motion to have that confession thrown out. Moorhead also ruled that DNA evidence tying Wells to the scene of the arsons would be part of the evidence. Vail police and fire investigators found Parliament cigarettes butts at the scene, with DNA that matched Wells'. After those rulings, defense attorneys Jim Little and Terry O'Connor negotiated with the prosecutors for the plea agreement. Wells was originally charged with seven counts of attempted murder, one for each of the people sleeping in the buildings he tried to burn down.
Wells had harassed his former girlfriend for weeks before trying to burn down her building, police said. Wells admitted he had removed a spark plug from the woman's car, so she'd be stranded and have to call him to help her. He had a key to her car, but didn't have her consent to have it, police said. Police accused Wells of planting two GPS applications on the woman's phone so Wells could track her.
Wells was originally charged with vandalizing the woman's car after police found damage to a CV joint, loosened lug nuts, and a plastic shopping bag had been stuffed into the nozzle of the gas tank. All that culminated in the predawn hours of Sept. 22. Around 5 a.m. a resident called Vail Police to report rocks being thrown onto the roof. The rocks were being thrown by a "shadowy figure," who escaped by "skulking" through some bushes, police were told.
When Vail Police Officer Dan Torgerson arrived moments later, the man who had called ran toward him, panicked and shouting, "There's a fire in Building E!" The flames were 2 feet high by that time, spreading quickly up an exterior wooden stairwell, the only escape route for people on the building's upper floors.
Torgerson sprinted to his police car and grabbed his fire extinguisher. In the seconds it took him to sprint back the flames had grown another 3 feet. He emptied his fire extinguisher onto the fire, knocking down the flames just as the Vail fire department arrived around one minute later to completely extinguish the blaze.
As investigators combed the crime scene in East Vail, Vail Police Detective Russell Jacobs drove a marked Vail police car to Wells' apartment in Eagle. Jacobs and officers from the Eagle Police Department and an Eagle County Sheriff's Office waited outside Wells' apartment for about an hour and a half. Around 12:30 p.m., Wells finally walked up to Jacobs' marked Vail police car, and asked Jacobs if Jacobs could help him find his car.
When police found Wells' car at 7 a.m. there was no frost on his vehicle, indicating it had been running, Liffick said. When Liffick interviewed Wells later that day, Wells told him he picked up a friend, drove to Gypsum, bought a gas can and filled it with gasoline, and also bought a pack of cigarettes. Police said Wells' car reeked of gasoline when they searched it following his arrest.
Police said Wells tried to set his first fire on a condo building adjacent to the one where his former girlfriend was living. That fire did not ignite because lawn sprinklers had soaked the surface minutes before, according to police. As that flame smoldered and died, Wells walked to the building directly to the east where his former girlfriend lived in a top floor apartment, police said. He poured gasoline on the wooden stairs and set the fire, then fled the scene, police said.
