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Man facing arson charge: 'I'm psychotic'

In a hearing, the judge says the man was sane at the time he set fire to his home with his wife inside.

By JORGE SANCHEZ
Published May 2, 2005

FLORAL CITY - While Citrus County was being pummeled by back-to-back tropical storms last summer, a storm of a different type was brewing in a remote backwaters neighborhood.

Kent Vernon Hamilton, 52, was beginning to lose his grip on reality. He stopped taking his antidepressant medicine and began to display erratic behavior. Life at the small A-frame cottage that he shared with his wife, Sylvia, began to get rocky. Hamilton engaged in a running feud with one of his neighbors, alleging that her daughters were harassing him.

"He was hell-bent on destruction," said the neighbor, Tammy White, who denied that her adult daughters harassed Hamilton.

All this spelled trouble for a man on probation for selling drugs. After a jury trial in May 2001, Hamilton was found guilty of sale of a controlled substance, alprazolam, or Xanax. He was sentenced to 18 months in prison, followed by three years' probation.

Still on probation in mid September 2004, trouble again found Hamilton. After four days without electricity because of the storms, Hamilton was on the edge of sanity, dressing in his wife's pants and acting incoherent, a neighbor said.

"He was pretty much out of it," said Larry Buffo, a friend and neighbor of Hamilton's.

On Sept. 6, Hamilton was involuntarily committed to a mental rehabilitation center under the provisions of the state's Baker Act, which allows a 72-hour confinement to those deemed to be a danger to themselves or others.

On Sept. 9, Hamilton was released from the Baker Act confinement and returned home to Sylvia and two renters who were staying at the home on E Turtle Lane. But trouble broke out, and Hamilton was asked to leave by sheriff's deputies.

He was back the next day, Sept. 10, and visited Buffo's mobile home a few houses away.

"He came over here wearing his wife's pants and no shoes the day of the fire," Buffo said. "I asked him "Kent, where are your clothes?' but he acted as if nothing was wrong."

About 11:45 p.m., there was a fire. Sylvia was inside the home along with a dog when the flames broke out.

White, the neighbor, told a judge during a hearing April 25 that she called 911 and also helped the woman and the dog exit the home through the front door.

"I could hear him (Hamilton) in the back, throwing wood and things into the fire," White said Thursday in a interview with the Times at her mobile home across the street from the burned-out cottage.

The A-frame was destroyed and Sylvia was unhurt, but she left to live with a relative in New York, Buffo said.

Hamilton was arrested on a charge of arson of an occupied dwelling, which carries a maximum sentence of life in prison. He also was charged with violating his probation on the earlier drug case.

Last week, the violation of probation charge was heard in Circuit Judge Richard Howard's court. After testimony from law enforcement, probation officers, relatives and neighbors, Howard found that Hamilton violated his probation. Sentencing will be incorporated with his other charges once they are resolved, Howard said. Hamilton was returned to jail, where he has been held since his arrest in September.

Testimony presented during the violation of probation hearing depicted the likely scenario for the arson trial.

Prosecutors will present testimony from a state fire marshal and a Citrus County sheriff's deputy, who both stated that Hamilton walked right up to them the night of the fire and told them he intentionally set the blaze.

Fire Marshal Robert Thompson testified that Hamilton not only told him he set the fire, but showed him how he used lamp oil and fertilizer to start the blaze in a washroom in the rear of the cottage. A sheriff's deputy took the stand to say that Hamilton told him the same story.

The defense is expected to argue that Hamilton was insane at the time of the fire and his confession was meaningless, and that the fire was caused by wind-blown embers from a nearby burn pit.

Fire Marshal Thompson said the investigation ruled out that likelihood.

Hamilton told Judge Howard of his many mental problems during last week's violation of probation hearing.

"I'm psychotic. I have different personalities and I have anxiety and depression," Hamilton said. "I probably am crazy, but I didn't burn my house down. Why would I do that? There's no insurance."

During gentle questioning by his court-appointed public defender, Hamilton said he loved his wife and would never do anything to harm her.

But state attorney Ed McDonough was far tougher.

"So you say you love your wife, Mr. Hamilton?" McDonough asked, his voice dripping with sarcasm. "Tell me, did you love her when you set fire to your house - with her inside - and just walked down the street? Did you love her then?"

Hamilton replied by telling McDonough: "I'm not answering any of your questions. Kiss my a--."

And as a bailiff approached, Judge Howard decided he had heard enough.

Howard said in finding Hamilton guilty of violating probation that he "clearly engaged in arson" and that he was "sane at the time he burned his house down."

"I find the state's witnesses credible," Howard said.

Hamilton's trial on the arson charge is scheduled for June, and prosecutors are also seeking to convict him as a habitual offender.

--Jorge Sanchez can be reached at 860-7313 or by e-mail at sanchez@sptimes.com

[Last modified May 2, 2005, 01:35:17]