For eight months, Dale Maxfield sat under a public microscope and the suspicion of law enforcement after an arson at his Hair Cutters Plus salon in the Firdale shopping center in south Edmonds.
But on Thursday a Snohomish County Superior Court jury acquitted Maxfield of first-degree arson.
A wave of relief settled over him, but not before he got assurances from his Everett lawyer, Mark Mestel.
“I had to wait for Mark to tell me it was all over,” Maxfield said Friday.
The jury deliberated only about two hours after a four-day trial. It heard a strange tale about a series of crimes against Maxfield, ending with him trapped inside the building during the arson.
Maxfield, 44, of Everett came under suspicion soon after the fire. Someone poured gasoline in eight spots inside the salon and left an open 5-gallon gas container about half full not far from the burning spots.
The fire followed a reported robbery and two reported burglaries at the salon in the previous month.
Deputy prosecutor Jim Townsend contended that Maxfield had staged the crimes preceding the Jan. 12 fire, and Maxfield also set the blaze.
He was charged with arson on March 28, which shocked him, Maxfield said. An Edmonds police officer was inspecting an open window at the salon the instant the fire ignited, and the patrolman didn’t see anyone else in the area.
Maxfield and his lawyer maintained that someone came into the salon and set the fire. Entry was probably gained when someone knocked on a window at night and Maxfield walked around the building to see who was there.
The fire started while Maxfield was doing some plumbing in the back laundry room at night, he testified.
Maxfield was trapped inside the building, with a board jammed against an inside door and a ski pole jamming the only outside door. Someone also spray-painted graffiti on the side of his truck.
In his closing argument, Mestel criticized the police investigation, saying no one chemically checked the paint on the side of the truck with a spray can found in bushes nearby.
“Do you really think he would burn down his business like this?” Mestel asked the jury. The police and prosecution “essentially have created this story from whole cloth,” he said.
Mestel also told jurors it doesn’t make sense for someone to remain inside a building after a large amount of gasoline has been poured on the floor.
“Max is a lucky man to be alive, and you should find him not guilty,” Mestel told jurors.
Although a motive was not made clear, the state maintained that Maxfield set the fire for a $43,000 insurance claim.
Maxfield said he rebuilt the salon with his own money and hasn’t received a cent from his insurance company. He said he now will seek reimbursement.
“I’m not going to roll over,” he said.
Reporter Jim Haley: 425-339-3447 or haley@heraldnet.com.
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