CLEARFIELD – A pathology expert and a pair of fire investigators testified during the second day of trial for the man accused of setting 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).
According to District Attorney Ryan Sayers, 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, was living on the first floor.
Gallaher allegedly showed up at some point that evening, which caused an altercation to break out when Mark Wolfe asked a drunken Gallaher to leave. “Jonathan Gallaher left and within minutes, the home went up in flames.
Lacy and Mark Wolfe managed to escape through a second-floor kitchen window, and once outside, Lacy Wolfe immediately reentered the first floor to help her father to safety. “Matthew Troxell didn’t get out. He died.”
Pathology Expert Dr. Harry Kamerow testified that he conducted an autopsy examination of Troxell, determining that he died of smoke inhalation from a house fire. He ruled his death a homicide.
He said Troxell had a carboxyhemoglobin level of 93 percent, noting even levels around 50 percent can prove fatal. There was also soot deposition in Troxell’s mouth, throat and lungs.
He concluded that Troxell survived in the burning home long enough to have soot deposition and “sky high” carboxyhemoglobin levels in his blood.
Kamerow did admit a toxicology analysis showed Troxell had a cocktail of medications and illicit drugs in his system that night, which included methamphetamine and fentanyl, but was still adamant: “that’s not what killed him.”
Trooper Matthew Peacock from the Clearfield state police crime section testified that home security cameras show Gallaher arrive at the Wolfe’s residence at 8:35 p.m. April 16, 2021 and then leave at 8:47 p.m.
Additional footage shows Gallaher lighting up cigarettes twice with a lighter inside the Central Bar and the glow of an ember as he leaves and walks towards the residence. Both times he places the lighter back into his pants pocket.
ATF Special Agent and Certified Fire Investigator Matthew Regentin also reviewed the footage. Initially, it shows what appears to be a light glow in the front door window when a male comes out and heads towards the bar.
At 8:48 p.m. – one minute and 32 seconds later – the glow intensifies and by 8:50 p.m., it consumes the entire window and a side window also illuminates and shortly after gets blown out by the flames.
By 8:52 p.m. – five minutes after the male exits – the fire picks up even more fuel from its new oxygen source and intensifies. “It grew exponentially and quick,” Regentin testified.
Regentin also concluded that the male, later identified as Gallaher, was inside the residence when the fire started.
Fire Marshal Tyler Thompson testified the fire started inside the front entryway on the second stair tread near the bottom of the staircase. He said it burned upwards in a “V” pattern and completely “consumed” the left banister.
Through process of elimination, Thompson ruled out potential causes like spontaneous combustion, electrical and accidental or careless cigarette burning, and ultimately declared it was an intentional act.
As Peacock interviewed Mark Wolfe in his patrol unit, fire marshals advised the fire had been ruled an arson, and because there was a fatality, it became an active homicide investigation requiring a forensics unit and additional troopers.
He interviewed Gallaher twice following the fire and his stories varied from he went to the Wolfe’s to use drugs to he was there to buy drugs and everything was okay until Lacy Wolfe got upset because she suspected him of using drugs there.
Gallaher claimed he left the Wolfe’s well before the fire occurred, and that he didn’t even have a lighter, which Peacock discovered wasn’t the case when he reviewed camera footage.
When pressed how he started the fire and if he used a cigarette, Peacock said Gallaher commented about how long that would take because a cigarette would just smolder and smolder.
Peacock said camera footage put Gallaher back at the Central Bar around 9:07 p.m., and testimony from two additional patrons confirmed that an intoxicated but emotional Gallaher confessed to them that he set the fire.