NORTHAMPTON — A judge ruled Monday that there were no conditions of release that could ensure the community’s safety in the case of a city man accused of setting two fires.
Gregory McMaster, 39, of 18 Summer St., was ordered held without right to bail by Northampton District Court Judge W. Michael Goggins. McMaster is charged with burning personal property, burning a building and assault and battery on a police officer. McMaster pleaded not guilty to the charges last week.
Northampton Police allege that McMaster set fire to several 6-foot stacks of plastic containers on pallets covered with a tarp behind CVS pharmacy on King Street and a toolshed at Congregation B’nai Israel’s Abundance Farm on Prospect Street during the late night hours of Oct. 8 and 9.
In court Monday, Assistant Northwestern District Attorney Matthew Thomas introduced testimony from Northampton Police Detective Michael Briggs and Northampton firefighter John Moriarty, who investigated the fires, in support of his motion to hold McMaster without bail.
Police began looking for McMaster on Sunday, Oct. 8, after receiving a call from a woman requesting a well-being check because he was intoxicated. The woman told police the two would meet behind the CVS Pharmacy on King Street, according to court documents.
When Police Sgt. Greg Korepta went to the area, he found “an ongoing fire,” according to a report written by Briggs. The fire was put out by Korepta with a dry chemical extinguisher from his cruiser.
A short time later, patrol officer Kyle Grumoli found McMaster “stumbling down the south edge of the bike path” heading toward King Street in the area of the Northampton Water Department building, Grumoli wrote in his report. The city’s Water Department is next to the synagogue’s garden.
Briggs arrived at the bike path a short time later but was unable to speak with McMaster due to his level of intoxication, according to the detective’s report. It was at that time that police received a report of a barn on fire nearby.
In court, Briggs testified that from where he was standing on the bike path he could see a “roughly two-story blaze” coming from the direction McMaster had just left.
A nearby surveillance camera caught the moment when the fire at the garden fully ignited. McMaster’s arrest came two to three minutes after the structure was fully ignited, Briggs testified. McMaster’s shoes allegedly had mud and a small amount of hay on the bottom on them when he was stopped by police, according to court documents. Officers also found a lighter in his pocket as well as loose tobacco and rolling papers.
In court, Moriarty testified that a hand-held lighter could have been used to ignite the plastic buckets behind CVS and the garden shed.
Through a process of elimination Moriarty said the garden shed fire could not have been accidental — there were no utilities to the shed and no lightning that night.
McMaster was convicted in June 2016 in Hampden Superior Court of setting fire to a dumpster behind a Holiday Inn in Ludlow. He spent approximately a year in jail on the burning personal property conviction, according to Thomas. In that crime, McMaster denied his involvement and said he was “blackout drunk,” Thomas said in court.
In arguing against the prosecutor’s motion for pretrial detention, defense attorney Korrina Burnham requested a series of conditions that would result in strict surveillance of McMaster including GPS monitoring and a sobriety monitor which would require multiple tests. The next court hearing date is scheduled for Nov. 14.
Emily Cutts can be reached at ecutts@gazettenet.com.