CLEARFIELD – The homicide trial got under way Wednesday in Clearfield County Court for the man who allegedly set a Coalport house fire in April of 2021 that claimed the life of Matthew Troxell, 33, of Roseland.
Jonathan M. Gallaher, 37, of Coalport is charged with criminal homicide, criminal attempt-homicide (three counts), arson-cause death, arson-danger of death or bodily injury (four counts), arson-inhabited building or structure, aggravated arson (four counts), causing/risking catastrophe, aggravated assault (four counts), criminal mischief, criminal mischief-damage to property and reckless endangerment (four counts).
In his opening statements, District Attorney Ryan Sayers said on the night of April 16, 2021, Mark and Lacy Wolfe were “hanging out” at their second-floor Main Street apartment with Troxell. Lacy’s father, Harold Gustafson, lived on the first floor.
He said Gallaher showed up at some point that evening, which caused an altercation to break out when Mark Wolfe asked Gallaher to leave. “Jonathan Gallaher left and within minutes, the home went up in flames.”
Lacy and Mark Wolfe escaped through a second-floor kitchen window, and once outside, Lacy Wolfe reentered the first floor to help her father to safety. “Matthew Troxell didn’t get out. He died.”
Sayers said surveillance video showed Gallaher as he entered and exited the home just before flames illuminated its windows, and upon further investigation, it was discovered that the fire was intentionally set at the base of the staircase.
Gallaher’s attorney, Chris Pentz, said the defense agreed on a “great deal” of case details, except for one – “who set the fire.”
Lacy Wolfe testified that she was in her second-floor kitchen preparing dinner April 16, 2021 when she smelled smoke. After checking her stove, she pulled back the sheer curtains in the doorway to find heavy smoke coming up the staircase.
She said she and her husband, Mark Wolfe, climbed out onto the roof, then jumped to the ground. She immediately ran back into the first floor to help her father get out.
The couple didn’t have fire insurance to cover the damage and losses, as the home had recently been deeded into their name. “We lost everything,” Lacy Wolfe testified.
Mark Wolfe said that day he heard someone try the doorknob, and when he went outside, he found Gallaher sleeping on his porch. He asked Gallaher to leave.
He said Gallaher stayed there a lot when a relative of his wife lived on the first floor. He compared his home to an “orphanage” for those who had no other place to go in Coalport.
Mark Wolfe explained that he “didn’t mind” if Gallaher came by to visit, but it did bother him when Gallaher stuck around and “made himself at home.”
Though he was asked to leave, Mark Wolfe said Gallaher followed him back inside and up the stairs. When Gallaher became disrespectful, Mark Wolfe said he told Gallaher that, “it’s time to go, leave” and pushed him.
He said Gallaher stumbled down a pair of steps, at which point he threw a coffee cup and its contents at Gallaher, striking him. He thought Gallaher left.
He went back upstairs to the kitchen, and by the time the table was set for dinner, smoke had consumed their second-floor apartment.
Mark Wolfe and his wife got out through a window, and she went back inside for her father. Troxell, he said, was in the front living area struggling to escape. “That was the last I heard of Matt,” he testified.
Marshall Waite, who lived down the street, said Gallaher showed up at his home, saying he’d gotten into an altercation with Mark Wolfe, and that “Wolfey” threw a drink on him.
Gallaher went on to admit that he’d been at Mark and Lacy Wolfe’s home, and tried to set a fire, but Waite said it wasn’t long after that they heard fire whistles.
Once Waite heard over a police/fire scanner mobile phone app that the fire was there, he asked Gallaher to leave because he didn’t want “any trouble.”
Kelly Glass of Coalport was at the Central Bar when Gallaher came in for a cigarette. She asked if ‘Mad Dog’ (Troxell) died in the fire, and he said, “yes,” and “I didn’t mean to” … “I torched that place.”
The trial resumes at 9 a.m. Thursday before Judge Paul Cherry in Courtroom No. 1 at the Clearfield County Courthouse. It’s scheduled through Tuesday.