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Office of the District Attorney P. David Soares John Watson Sentenced to 12 Years for Grand Street Fire ALBANY, NY – District Attorney P. David Soares announced that JOHN PAUL WATSON, 23, of 32 Van Zandt Street, Albany, NY was sentenced today to 12 years by the Honorable Thomas A. Breslin. He also faces five years of post release supervision. On August 18 th, 2005, WATSON pleaded guilty to two counts of Arson in the 2 nd Degree in connection to the fire which took place on May 14 th, 2005 at 57 and 59 Grand Street in Albany. WATSON was arrested shortly after having had a conversation with Joe Abbruzzese, the owner of Hill Street Café. During the conversation, WATSON identified himself as State Fire Investigator and asked for surveillance tapes which might have had pictures of the Grand Street Fire. Abbruzzese’s suspicions were aroused when WATSON failed to provide identification so Abbruzzese said he would get the tapes but instead he called the police and kept WATSON talking until the police arrived. After failing a polygraph test, WATSON gave a full confession to Detective Mark Sauter of the Albany Arson Task Force. This Task Force consists of Fire Investigators from the Office of the District Attorney, representatives from the Albany Police Department and the Albany Fire Department, the NYS Insurance Fraud Bureau and the NYS Fire Prevention and Control Arson Bureau. WATSON admitted to having started the fire by dropping a lit cigarette into a pile of trash in a wooden shed behind 59 Grand Street. This fire then spread to the buildings on either side of the building. Task force investigators determined that the course of the fire was consistent with the explanation that WATSON had supplied with his confession. DA Soares said that this was a good and significant sentence but he warned that the residents of Albany still need to be on alert. “One of the lessons of the Grand Street fire is that residents should keep their backyards and back porches clear of brush, dry wood and potential accelerants such as charcoal, lighter fluid, or gasoline,” he said. “This fire swiftly raged out of control because Watson had found a dry pile of rubbish which quickly burst into flame,” he added. Back to Press Releases For further information contact: Richard Arthur
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