People v. Krug

282 A.D.2d 874, 725 N.Y.S.2d 409, 2001 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 3941
CourtAppellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York
DecidedApril 19, 2001
StatusPublished
Cited by14 cases

This text of 282 A.D.2d 874 (People v. Krug) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
People v. Krug, 282 A.D.2d 874, 725 N.Y.S.2d 409, 2001 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 3941 (N.Y. Ct. App. 2001).

Opinion

—Spain, J.

Appeal from a judgment of the County Court of Albany County (Breslin, J.), rendered February 14, 2000, upon a verdict convicting defendant of the crimes of attempted arson in the second degree and endangering the welfare of a child (two counts).

Defendant was convicted after a jury trial of attempted arson in the second degree and two counts of endangering the welfare of a child. The convictions arose out of defendant’s actions in the Town of New Scotland, Albany County, on August 21, 1998, when he intentionally tampered with the electric hot water heater located in the basement of a house knowing that the house was occupied by his estranged wife, Susan Krug, their three-year-old daughter and Krug’s 15-year-old son, with the intent to cause the hot water heater to overheat and start a fire. Prior to this incident, on July 20, 1998, an order of protec[875]*875tion was issued in Family Court, Albany County, requiring defendant to remove all of his property from the premises before September 1, 1998. Defendant was prohibited from entering the house, but was permitted to enter the garage and the basement without prior notice to Krug for the purpose of removing automobiles and other items.

The trial testimony established that, on the morning of August 21, 1998, defendant was present at the residence moving his collection of antique cars away from the house to other parts of the property. According to Krug’s testimony, defendant was the only person with a key to the basement, which was accessible only from the outside of the house. The basement had a dirt floor and was cluttered, except for one small sitting area near the furnace — set aside for defendant’s use — which was furnished with, inter alia, a chair, a television and a stereo. During the course of the day, Krug went outside, asked defendant to obtain receipts for any cars he sold and began taking photographs of the automobiles and defendant’s activities. Defendant became angry and said to her, “you are going to get hurt.”

Later that day, after one of the children reported that there was no hot water, Krug entered the open basement and observed that the temperature control on the electric hot water heater was set on high, a panel had been removed from the outside of the tank, and the water valve which feeds water into the recently installed hot water heater was turned off. When Krug opened the water valve, she could hear water flowing back into the tank. She also discovered that the area all around the hot water heater was piled neck-high with newspapers and cardboard boxes and she proceeded to move these items away from the hot water heater. The last time she had seen the hot water heater — as recently as July 14, 1998 — there was no debris piled around it. When Krug exited the basement, she observed defendant at the end of the driveway laughing at her and she returned to the house to call the police. Defendant returned to the basement at least once before leaving the premises. Krug also testified that only months earlier, in April 1998, defendant had threatened to hurt the children if she went to work that day; when she asked him what he meant he said, “Oh, I might accidentally set the house on fire.”

William Riley, an investigator with the Albany County Sheriffs Department, testified that he went to the house four days after the incident and in the basement near the hot water heater he found two reset switches to a hot water heater (one was burnt), a burnt/partially melted plastic guard and a small [876]*876piece of heavy wire. He testified that the plastic guard was the covering for the burnt reset switch. The wire was U-shaped, and the U shape of the wire matched the location of the burn marks on the burnt reset switch. Thereafter, Riley spoke with defendant who eventually gave a written statement that, on the date of the incident, he shut off the intake valve to the hot water tank “as an act of vengeance” because Krug made him “angry and upset.” Defendant also stated that he realized that “shutting off the water to the hot water tank could have caused it to overheat and get hot enough to cause a fire. I know this because it has happened to me in the past” (emphasis supplied). He further stated, “A while ago I had a similar incident occur where the circuits on a hot water tank have melted and started to burn. I have also seen the damage that this act could have resulted in several years ago when I was in New Jersey I had a fire at my house which was caused by a hot water tank, and it pretty much destroyed everything.”

The People offered the testimony of three expert witnesses to prove that defendant’s actions could have caused a fire. Richard Sebast, a former service technician for a local company which repairs heating and cooling equipment, testified that when he responded to a prior complaint of no hot water at Krug’s residence on July 10, 1998, he observed that the panels — which provide access to the heating elements and to their connected wires — had been removed from the hot water heater and that the high temperature safety switch had tripped for no apparent reason. He explained that when the water gets too hot, a safety reset switch will turn the hot water heater off and then the reset button has to be manually reset to resume the heater’s operation. He further testified that it is possible to deliberately cause the water in a hot water heater to overheat by using a jumper wire to bypass the high temperature safety switch on the thermostat, and that such overheating could cause the electrical wires inside the tank to overheat to a point where the plastic panels covering the wires could melt.

Alan Kmieciak, a service technician for the same company, testified that on July 14, 1998, he responded to another complaint of no hot water at the Krug residence and at that point found a burnt-out water heater element and an old thermostat lying on the floor; he also noticed that a piece of plastic located near the upper heating element of the hot water heater had melted. Kmieciak recommended to Krug that she should replace the water heater, and a new hot water heater was installed that day. Kmieciak, like Sebast, testified that the elements of a hot water heater could be overheated by bypassing [877]*877the thermostat safety device with a wire and that a fire could possibly be caused if the water supply to a hot water heater is shut off, the tank is left running, the access panels are opened and combustible materials are packed around the water heater.

Robert Muller, a criminal investigator for the Albany County District Attorney and a fire investigation expert, characterized the wire that Riley found in the basement as a “jumper wire.” He testified that the wire could fit the hot water heater’s control panel so as to bypass the safety shut-off feature, although he never actually took the wire and fitted it to the hot water heater at Krug’s house. Muller opined that the combination of turning off the water intake and leaving the panels open and the hot water heater running with combustibles piled around it could result in a fire.

Defendant — the sole witness for the defense — testified that he had been at the house on August 21, 1998 to remove some of his cars and admitted that he had been very annoyed with Krug because she told him that he could not move his cars and, in retaliation, he turned off the intake valve to the hot water heater. He denied having exclusive access to the basement, threatening Krug and that combustible items were piled around the hot water heater that day.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
282 A.D.2d 874, 725 N.Y.S.2d 409, 2001 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 3941, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-krug-nyappdiv-2001.