10x01 - Trial By Fire

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on a bitter cold night a family home

went up in flames k*lling one man and

leaving a second person injured a

witness blamed a kerosene heater local

investigators suspected arson forensic

science was needed to sort through the

contradictions was this an accident or

cold-blooded work

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the weather in Jackson Georgia is

usually warm most of the year but in

January of 2003 it was an unusual cold

snap with temperatures below freezing

citrus growers used kerosene heaters to

save their orange crop and Jean and Jim

long used a kerosene heater in the

workshop of their home so the pipes

wouldn't freeze but something went

terribly wrong when firemen arrived the

house was totally ablaze jean long had

escaped the fire but her husband jim was

trapped inside my father-in-law came to

the door to wake us he said

he said there's a fire at your dad's

house and it's bad there was a angle and

buyings

very shocking moment firemen searched

the area around the home but there was

no sign that Jim had escaped I just

thought my dad would come walking out

but the Long's home was attached to a

workshop Jim used to store the equipment

for his tree trimming business it too

was on fire after the fire was put out

the firefighters cut through the metal

siding they found the body of 53 year

old Jim lon

it's almost like disbelief that was

going on at that time I'm just real hard

to almost like it was a dream that you

were gonna wake up from Jean was taken

to the hospital where she was treated

for minor scrapes and bruises one of the

bruises was on her chin she told police

that her husband tried to fulfill their

kerosene heater with fuel and then there

was an expl*si*n he was covered in

flames she tried to put hit the fire out

with her hands the gloves caught fire in

a panic Jean said she ran from the

workshop into their home to call the

fire department

at the fire scene investigators found

the remnants of the kerosene heater but

the plastic fuel can was found outside

the workshop door in perfect condition

inconsistent with jeans story and major

might over be believed that the position

of Jim's body was inconsistent with most

fire victims

it appeared that his legs were

outstretched in his arms were above his

head it appeared to me the way someone

would be positioned if they had been

dragged into a particular spot or

carried that was the first thing that I

noticed that they were not in a fetal

time position that that you see in fires

in addition over be found visual

evidence of poor patterns around Jim's

body the type of patterns which result

from the use of an accelerant that to

him suggested that James Wong had been

lying on the floor and gasoline or an

accelerant had been poured over him

intentionally

he'd been set afire and Jim's autopsy

revealed even more evidence that he was

unconscious before the fire started

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during Jim Long's autopsy the medical

examiner found something suspicious

there wasn't as much dirt soot and smoke

damage in his lungs as one would expect

in a fire victim mr. Lal did not have

enough of the chemicals that are found

in the blood after a person dies of

smoke inhalation for that to have caused

his death he had breathed some smoke he

had certain in his throat but he had not

breathed enough smoke to k*ll him and

Jim also suffered a fractured skull dr.

bill bass a world-famous forensic

anthropologist at the University of

Tennessee was asked for his opinion we

have three fractures a radiating out

from the same source the source being

the hole that is in the skull that is an

indication that there's been blunt force

trauma there is not due to the fire the

cause of death was determined to be

thermal injuries and blunt force head

trauma

his death was listed as a homicide

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homicide investigator major michael

overly asked jean long to explain what

happened on the night of the fire

Jean said her husband was filling the

heater with kerosene when it exploded

you said that he reliving inside yet the

red plastic fuel can was found outside

the workshop and over be noticed that

Jim's arms and legs were outstretched

when he was found underneath Jim's body

for several aerosol cans there was one

under his head there was one under his

right leg and another one up under his

back and that appeared on that appeared

to me something that could be used to

accelerate the damage of the body in a

fire patterns on the concrete floor

around the body were also suspicious

makes these marks this is what it leaves

specially in concrete when an accelerant

such as gasoline is poured on some gene

also said she called the fire department

from a phone in the house but

investigators found the outside door was

locked

if gene locked it on her way out police

saw this as evidence that she was in no

hurry to save her husband her husband is

on fire burning in this building

she runs outside but she locks the door

behind her see to me that's very

important you think the jury's gonna buy

this I can say right now hey whoa

major overbee asked gene to take a

polygraph test and she agreed she was a

sport like if she poured her husband

with gasoline said he won't fire

she failed that question she failed if

she was present when he was m*rder*d

investigators discovered that Jim was

angry with his wife for spending so much

time in Kansas each year visiting

relatives there were also rumors that

Jim may have been planning to leave

Jeanne major

overbee believes on the night of the

fire the couple may have been discussing

a divorce which prompted an argument

it's our theory that there is a domestic

situation between mr. long and his wife

I believe that the abrasion on her chin

came from him possibly slapping her and

his skull fractures I believe was a

result of her striking him in the head

with some hard object Overby believes

gene poured an accelerant on Jim set him

on fire then inadvertently carried the

fuel can out of the workshop when she

left to call for help I felt like it was

a strong circumstantial case I felt like

we had eliminated any other reasonable

hypothesis for this death the day after

her husband's funeral gene long was

charged with arson and m*rder she didn't

seem shocked she made no statement at

the tub

she acted like she was expected Jean

told her lawyers there was an expl*si*n

in that workshop and that there must be

evidence in the ashes to prove it

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gene Long's family hired defense

attorneys Wade crumbly and Barbara moon

for what they feared would be a long

difficult trial Bob Ramon met with gene

in the county jail

she was very broken woman started just

twiddling her hands and shaking

unbelievably I thought she was very

genuine and I believed in her it's just

that simple

a week later James Church managed to

raise the money for her bail jeans

family insisted that her marriage to Jim

was a happy one Jim's daughter from a

previous marriage agreed I was glad he

met somebody and that he was happy and

he wasn't gonna be alone time he seems

iam you st. Jean same one you say melted

like whenever we're together and Jean

had no financial motive Jim's life

insurance amounted to less than $40,000

but local prosecutors were convinced

this was an open-and-shut case their

theory was she saw the opportunity to

get rid of him and poured him and lit it

and then made it seem or tried to tell

everyone that it was an accident the

defense asked John Lentini a nationally

known fire investigator for his opinion

with respect to the quality of the fire

investigation it ranks up there with the

worst that I have ever seen and I have

seen a lot of bad fire investigations in

my day this was over the top

local investigators suspected

accelerants had been used to start the

fire

but Lentini discovered that the workshop

housed containers of fuel for jim's

tree-trimming equipment in his shop we

had vehicles we had tanks of acetylene

we had tanks of propane

we had containers of liquid fuels he had

chainsaws in there lots of papers

clothing lots of combustibles and when

it went up it just really went up and

Lentini disputed police claims that

there were poor patterns around Jim's

body

he said the heat of the fire made such a

determination impossible once you get to

full room involvement you're gonna get

all kinds of patterns that are easily

misinterpreted it happens all the time

I've created them by mistake I've

created them on purpose

the homicide investigator thought that

the position of Jim's body was

suspicious we felt like from the very

beginning based on the way he was laying

on his back with his arms stretched over

his head and his legs straight out that

he had been placed there a gene had

always contended that while her husband

was on fire he was flailing about was it

possible the Jim struck his head on the

metal table nearby causing the fractured

skull and knocking him unconscious I can

tell you that there is a blow to the

side of the head that caused fractures

who did that blow or how that bro got

there I can't tell you

could he fall on the metal workbench yes

he could have

Lentini believes the charge of arson and

m*rder had been a rush to judgment and

that the kerosene heater was to blame

basically what you do is you fill this

up with kerosene or diesel fuel you

throw a wick of some kind down in there

what happens when you have this lake of

fire down in here is you're generating

lots and lots of soot and that suit

coats the inside and it self will catch

on fire like charcoal so if you don't

allow this thing to cool down

sufficiently it's pretty dangerous in a

surprising discovery

gas chromatography of the residue inside

the heaters fuel t*nk identified

gasoline and not kerosene it takes more

heat to ignite kerosene gasoline ignites

at very low temperatures the difference

in flammability between gasoline and

kerosene is just tremendous and I've

worked on a lot of fires where people

miss fuel kerosene heaters with gasoline

end up having big fires gene said they

were using the heater outside before

they moved it indoors since a gallon of

gasoline is equivalent to 20 sticks of

dynamite when Jim poured it into the hot

fuel t*nk it caused an expl*si*n just as

gene described the residue of gasoline

inside that smudge pot was the physical

evidence and mrs. long story was the

eyewitness evidence it fits together and

she couldn't have faked that part the

fuel canister found outside the workshop

which investigators found so suspicious

contained kerosene proving it played no

role in the fire

prosecutors still believe jean long

m*rder*d her husband but which version

would the jury believe

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you

/ be employed a standard police

technique when he ended the

interrogation and left the room with the

tape machine still running in this

situation a suspect will often say

something incriminating in this case she

said something else what major Overby

had hoped that happened I think worked

against him I think he was in hopes that

she was going to say something to hurt

her

criminate herself and what she did she

reached out to God and started begging

for help

to give her the strength to endure that

hostile interview the defense claimed

that the fire was accidental

that Jim long stakin li filled the hot

kerosene heater with gasoline causing

the expl*si*n gene frantically tried to

put it out and when she couldn't achieve

ran to call for help at some point Jim

struck his head on the workbench which

fractured his skull and caused his death

the defense offered no explanation for

why gene locked the door on her way out

of the house except that it was force of

habit

something she did everytime she left the

house gene long herself took the stand

in her own defense she came across as

completely genuine terrified about the

prospect of what she was going through

and terrified at reliving the moment of

what happened that night

the jury didn't hear about the results

of the polygraph test polygraph

examinations are inadmissible

there's no admissible reason they're not

reliable bottom line jeans family says

the medication she was taking may have

been a contributing factor she was just

really drugged up more or less she was

on the pills the hospital had given her

to help her stay calm and to kind of

take in everything

after eight days of testimony the jury

deliberated for just three hours before

rendering their verdict

they found jean long not guilty of all

charges this case never should have been

brought they should have consulted an

expert my training is in violent crime

interpretation and crime scene

interpretation in reconstruction to this

day major Overby doesn't agree with the

verdict or with john lantini's

conclusions about the fire I believe



that that she k*lled her husband I

believe that she got by with m*rder the

unanswered question to me would be why

the jury decided what they decided after

the trial and the not guilty verdict

Jean long moved out of the state and is

trying to put her life back together

again

she's still grieving she's finally being

able to not concentrate on the trial and

stuff and being able to work through her

emotions the remnants of Jim and Jean

Long's house and workshop are still

standing

a reminder that forensic science isn't

only a tool to convict the guilty but to

protect the innocent as well if I could

keep this from happening to another

family and their people wouldn't have to

go through what we went through what we

need in our system of justice is for the

state to have proof that it really is a

set fire and they didn't have that here

wasn't a case of charging the wrong

person was a crime there was no crime at

all it was an accident

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