Wrongfully convicted in deadly fire case, Logan man seeks freedom
By JUSTIN STORY jstory@bgdailynews.com
RUSSELLVILLE, KY – A judge’s finding last year that evidence used to convict a Logan County man in a deadly trailer fire was unreliable led to the conviction being reversed.
Now, after having spent more than a decade of a 52-year sentence in prison, Robert Yell has moved to have the case against him dismissed.
Yell, 40, was convicted in 2006 on charges of first-degree arson, first-degree assault, second-degree manslaughter, second-degree persistent felony offender and two misdemeanor offenses.
A jury determined at the time that Yell intentionally set fire to the Russellville mobile home where he lived Sept. 11, 2004, and caused the death of his 2-year-old son, Cameron, from smoke inhalation.
The jury relied on testimony from expert witnesses for the prosecution that holes in the floor and irregular burn patterns on the wall of the trailer indicated the presence of a fire accelerant.
Tests of Yell’s hands and clothing for the presence of an accelerant were negative, according to court records.
An accelerant-detecting dog hit upon a number of locations inside the residence, which the prosecution used to bolster its argument that Yell intentionally set the fire.
Yell was charged initially with murder, and the Logan County Commonwealth’s Attorney’s office sought the death penalty, but withdrew its notice of intent to seek capital punishment at the start of the 2006 trial.
The Kentucky Supreme Court upheld Yell’s conviction shortly after the trial, and subsequent appeals by Yell that he had ineffective assistance from his attorney and that an expert witness gave untruthful testimony were unsuccessful.
In 2016, Yell, through his attorney, Amy Robinson Staples of The Exoneration Project, contested his conviction on the grounds that forensic evidence that appeared to show the fire had multiple points of origin was unreliable.
Expert witnesses testified at the time that burn patterns on the wall and holes in the trailer’s floor suggested that an accelerant was used in the setting of the fire.
At a hearing in 2016, defense experts testified that the technique of examining patterns and holes left behind by a fire to determine its cause and origin is an outdated practice that cannot be used to identify the presence of an accelerant.
Such patterns and holes are present in all fires with full-room involvement, and the holes in the floor of Yell’s trailer were near heating and air-conditioning ductwork, suggesting the possibility that the fire was actually ventilation-controlled, according to court records.
The hits by the accelerant-detecting dog were not confirmed by a subsequent laboratory analysis.
Logan Circuit Judge Tyler Gill overturned Yell’s conviction in a ruling late in 2016, finding the conclusions made by investigators with the Kentucky State Fire Marshal’s Office to be “unreliable and baseless and should not have been admitted into evidence.”
“If the testimony of (the fire marshals) was in any way based upon their personal analysis of non-scientific evidence, the system failed,” Gill wrote in his 2016 order reversing Yell’s conviction. “Juries are entitled to expect that the conclusions presented by witnesses qualified as ‘experts’ are entirely scientifically based and not merely the personal feelings of a prosecuting officer.”
Yell was released on bond last year and the Logan County Commonwealth’s Attorney’s office appealed Gill’s ruling to the Kentucky Court of Appeals, but moved earlier this year to dismiss the appeal.
On June 26, Staples moved to have all charges against Yell dismissed, arguing that no new evidence connecting Yell to the fire has emerged to replace the now-discredited evidence.
“The testimony of the Commonwealth’s experts, now proven to be unreliable, was/is the entirety of the Commonwealth’s case,” Staples said in her motion. “The Commonwealth presented no other physical evidence, witnesses or admissions pointing to Mr. Yell’s guilt and is unable to do so today.”
Staples also pointed out in the motion that the mother of Yell’s children testified that Yell had no motive to set the fire.
“As a result of, in great part, the Commonwealth’s reckless use of experts who could provide no valid scientific explanation for their conclusions, Mr. Yell has already spent over 12 years wrongfully imprisoned for a crime he did not commit,” Staples wrote. “While fighting the charges against him and incarcerated, Mr. Yell has been robbed of the chance to fully grieve the loss of his son.”
A hearing has been set for Sept. 4 in Logan Circuit Court.
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Prosecutor appeals judge's decision in fire death of boy
JUSTIN STORY jstory@bgdailynews.com
Jan 27, 2017
RUSSELLVILLE, KY — Logan County Commonwealth's Attorney Gail Guiling is appealing a judge's decision to set aside the conviction and 52-year prison sentence of a man accused of setting a fire that killed his 2-year-old son.
Robert Yell, 39, of Russellville, had been incarcerated for 12 years after being found guilty of first-degree arson, first-degree assault, second-degree manslaughter, second-degree persistent felony offender and two misdemeanor offenses in connection with the 2004 fire at a Russellville mobile home.
Cameron Yell died of smoke inhalation as a result of the fire, which investigators claimed that Robert Yell intentionally set after he had been in an argument with his then-girlfriend.
Logan Circuit Judge Tyler Gill set aside the conviction last month, issuing a ruling that found that the jury at Yell's trial reached its verdict based on faulty testimony.
An evidentiary hearing held in December established that testimony from four expert prosecution witnesses who concluded the fire at the trailer had multiple points of origin was baseless because investigative methods used at the time to reach that conclusion are now outdated and unreliable.
An accelerant-dection dog that "hit" on a number of locations within the trailer for the presence of an ignitable liquid, but subsequent laboratory analysis of the areas where the dog detected their presence did not yield positive results, court records show.
No evidence of accelerant was found by police on Yell's hands, clothing or shoes.
"It is now objectively clear that the opinions given by these four experts at trial were, viewed in the most favorable light, based on obsolete and erroneous techniques, 'rules of thumb' and assumptions and none can be relied upon as true," Gill wrote in his ruling last month.
Yell was transported from the Kentucky Department of Corrections to Logan County Detention Center after Gill's ruling.
At a status conference held Thursday in Logan Circuit Court, Guiling said she had filed a notice of appeal in the case Monday, meaning that the Kentucky Court of Appeals will decide whether to uphold Gill's decision.
Yell, who had been jailed on a $15,000 cash bond, saw his bond modified on Thursday to $15,000 secured with 10 percent cash.
Yell's attorney, Krista Dolan of the Department of Public Advocacy, filed a motion last week to reduce the bond, arguing that Yell had family support and would be able to secure employment if he were released on bond.
Dolan also noted in the motion that Yell's conviction was based on unreliable evidence.
"Though the offenses with which he has been charged are serious, there currently exists no credible evidence to indicate that Mr. Yell actually committed those charges," Dolan wrote in her motion.
Gill granted the motion over Guiling's objection.
"The commonwealth thinks $15,000 is a more than reasonable bond given the nature of these charges and given Young's history ... when he's not incarcerated," Guiling said in court Thursday.
After the hearing, Yell's family said they were happy with the judge's decision to modify the bond and declined further comment.
