March 4, 2020
By: Dwayne Page
More than three years after the offense was committed and over eight months since his trial and conviction, 57 year old Gary Wayne Ponder has been sentenced for setting fire in a courthouse vestibule recycling bin causing more than $100,000 in damage to the building.
Following a hearing Wednesday in DeKalb County Criminal Court, Judge Gary McKenzie sentenced Ponder to serve 23 years in the Tennessee Department of Correction for the crime of aggravated arson. The range of punishment for this Class-A felony offense is from 15-25 years. Since his conviction, Ponder has been housed in the DeKalb County Jail. Although Ponder is to serve 100% of the sentence, he could qualify for a 15% reduction with good time credits over the course of the term.
A motion for a new trial will be heard on June 9.
During the hearing Wednesday, Assistant District Attorney General Greg Strong asked that Ponder be given the maximum sentence of 25 years due to the seriousness of the offense in that Ponder had no hesitation in committing the crime when the threat to human life was high; that the amount of property damage was exceedingly great; and that Ponder had a history of criminal activity. To back up his case, Strong called Probation Officer Tiffany Campbell to testify as to Ponder’s criminal background based on a pre-sentence report she had compiled on him. County Mayor Tim Stribling also testified of the structural damage to the courthouse caused by the fire started by Ponder and the number of people who were inside the building at the time whose safety was put at risk.
Ponder’s attorney, Assistant District Public Defender Allison West, argued for some leniency based on a set of mitigating factors including that Ponder has suffered from a history of mental health issues and the fact that prior to the trial while he was free on bond Ponder had not committed any further crimes.
Ponder stood trial for the crime on July 18, 2019.
After hearing several hours of testimony, it took the jury, made up of six men and six women, less than half an hour to deliver it’s verdict. Guilty as charged for aggravated arson.
Smithville Police charged Ponder on Wednesday, June 15, 2016 after he was observed on the courthouse surveillance video system intentionally lighting fire in a newspaper recycling bin on the first floor vestibule. The video showed that on Tuesday, June 14, 2016 Ponder grabbed newspapers from the recycling bin and started the fire by lighting them with a cigarette lighter. The fire damaged the wall behind the recycling bin and cracked a window in the vestibule near the first floor entrance of the courthouse.
Local attorney Jim Judkins, who was walking through the courthouse at the time, was the first to spot the blaze. He tried to put out the fire with a pot of coffee from a nearby office and then with a fire extinguisher.
Both Judkins and County Mayor Tim Stribling testified for the state during the trial and the video of the fire was shown to the jury. Judkins recounted how he responded in trying to put out the blaze which spread quickly up the side of the wall behind the recycling bin producing intense heat and smoke in the small vestibule. He also described Ponder’s reaction after starting the fire. Judkins said Ponder lingered there watching as the blaze grew larger.
“He stood there. He looked intoxicated and appeared to be having difficulty standing,” said Judkins.
Stribling testified about the damage to the courthouse caused by the fire.
The total damages to the courthouse came to $120,706.52, which is the amount of the claim paid by the county’s insurance provider. After the fire smoke had to be cleared from the courthouse, new ceiling tiles and dry wall work were required and a broken glass in the vestibule doorway had to be replaced. The county also installed a new fire alarm system in the courthouse at a cost of $35,363.81.
Smithville Police Officer Brandon Donnell, who also testified for the state, said that when he was called to the scene of the fire that day he entered the courthouse and discovered the smoke from the first floor had already penetrated to the second and third floors. After learning that Ponder was a suspect, he confronted him outside the courthouse and escorted Ponder across the street to the police department. When asked what happened, Ponder told Officer Donnell that he had finished a cigarette and dropped it into the recycling bin. After viewing the video, Officer Donnell arrested Ponder the next day and charged him with aggravated arson.
Assistant District Public Defender Scott Grissom, who represented Ponder at trial, called a Neuro-Psychologist, Dr. Pamela Mary Auvle who testified that Ponder suffers from a neuro-cognitive disorder specifically from an ammonia build up in his brain and that Ponder’s medical condition and use of opioids, anxiety medication, and other drugs causes him to suffer from recurring episodes of confusion. Relying primarily on Ponder’s medical records, lab tests and evaluations of others, Dr. Auvle concluded that Ponder did not know what he was doing when he set the fire. Dr. Auvle added that she first met with Ponder for an evaluation in October 2018 and while he had improved, Ponder still suffers from the condition.
Assistant District Attorneys General Stephanie Johnson and Victor Gernt challenged Dr. Auvle’s testimony.
“The state’s position is that her expert testimony is not credible because Dr. Auvle had no levels from the day of the fire to base anything on. Secondly, Dr. Auvle could not distinguish what was the contributing factor. Was it Ponder’s high ammonia level in his brain or was it his drug use?. The symptoms are exactly the same. The state’s position is that this is a person who voluntarily intoxicated himself and committed a crime. He knew what he was doing,” said Johnson.
Ponder did not testify in his own defense but his mother, Frances Smith was called to give an account of Ponder’s condition on the day of the fire, hours before it occurred. Smith said her son seemed to be disoriented that day, not in his right mind, doing odd things.