Nurse's defense turns to office building itself

Misty Ann Weaver, the licensed vocational nurse who is charged with three counts of murder and one count of arson in last month's fatal office building fire, is escorted yesterday by a baliff after a hearing at the Harris County Criminal Justice Center. According to authorities, she started the fire because she hadn't finished an assignment for her boss, a plastic surgeon, and feared she might lose her job. James Nielsen:Chronicle

Nurse's defense turns to office building itself

Her attorneys want their own inspectors to look at sprinklers

By BRIAN ROGERS
April 11, 2007, 11:51AM

Attorneys for a nurse accused of setting an office-building fire that killed three people plan to have their own inspectors examine the building's sprinkler system, the lead defense lawyer said Tuesday.

Without elaborating, Todd Dupont said the defense team also wants to determine how long it took Houston firefighters to respond to the March 28 blaze at 9343 North Loop East.

Dupont spoke after a brief hearing in which Misty Ann Weaver, 33, appeared before state District Judge Michael McSpadden.

In addition to gaining access to the six-story office building, Dupont said, he wants to get his client's $330,000 bail reduced.

Weaver is charged with three counts of felony murder and one count of arson. Three people who worked in the building — Jeanette Hargrove, Shana Ellis and Marvin Wells Sr. — died as wind-whipped flames gutted the upper floors.

"She's never been in trouble before," Dupont said of Weaver, a licensed vocational nurse who worked for a cosmetic surgeon.

In court Tuesday, Harris County Assistant District Attorney John Jocher said Weaver confessed in some detail about starting the fire shortly after employees had left the office for the day.

Jocher said Weaver admitted to re-entering the building after 5 p.m., going into the kitchen of the doctor's fifth-floor office suite and getting a lighter. She then went into the supply closet and set fire to a cardboard box that she believed contained plastic tubing, Jocher said.

She watched until the flames grew to four or five inches tall before leaving the building, he said.

Security camera footage showed that Weaver returned to the building after ostensibly leaving work for the day, which she didn't originally tell investigators, the prosecutor said.

More than 100 Houston firefighters battled the four-alarm fire for several hours and at least three were injured. Some office workers had to be rescued through shattered windows via ladder trucks.

Weaver — who had been interviewed earlier by agents of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives — was asked to talk with them again Saturday afternoon to clear up "discrepancies" in earlier accounts of her activities on the day of the fire.

During that conversation, agents said, she admitted setting the blaze.

HFD Chief Arson Investigator Roy Paul said Weaver had been in charge of preparing for an important audit for her boss and wanted to cover up the fact that she had failed to complete the paperwork. She feared losing her job and thought that a small fire would delay the audit, investigators said.

Paul said Weaver apparently did not think the fire would get out of control or injure anyone.

Her employer, Dr. Robert Capriotti, said the mother of two had financial troubles, including filing for bankruptcy, but that her problems didn't seem "pressing."

He said she had no access to office funds.

Capriotti said Weaver continued to work in his relocated office after the fire and her behavior did not seem different.

Felony murder is a charge alleging that a death occurred because someone did something clearly dangerous to human life during a felony, such as arson. It is different from capital murder, Jocher said, because prosecutors must prove the killing was intentional in capital murder.