Helped by a four-legged witness, jury gives Haltom woman 12 years in arson case
Posted on Tue, Jun. 16, 2009
By MARTHA DELLER
Fort Worth Star Telegram
FORT WORTH — A parade of firefighters and arson investigators told a Tarrant County jury how they pieced together proof that a Haltom City woman intentionally set a fire that killed three dogs and injured her boyfriend.
But prosecutors Betty Arvin and Miles Brissette saved their star witness for last — a yellow Labrador retriever named Rio.
Accompanied by his human partner, Bedford firefighter Joey Lankford, Rio nosed around 10 1-gallon paint cans clustered in the courtroom before "hitting on" two cans that contained small whiffs of gasoline.
"It’s the first time we’ve used a dog in court," prosecutor Betty Arvin said. "I don’t know if it had an effect on the jury, but it was educational to show how arson investigators go about doing their job. It was the coolest thing."
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