N. Lawrence fire trial nears end

The trial to determine whether Caleb Lacey set the fire that killed four people in North Lawrence a year ago is approaching its conclusion, and the victims’ family members say they are hoping their three-week ordeal in court will end with justice.

Closing arguments began on Tuesday morning, and a jury will soon decide whether Lacey played a role in the Feb. 19, 2009, blaze at a Lawrence Avenue apartment building that killed 46-year-old Morena Vanegas, her 19-year-old son, Saul Preza, and daughters Susanna and Andrea Vanegas, 13 and 9. The jury was expected to begin deliberating at midweek, after the Herald went to press.

Lacey, who last winter was a first-year probationary volunteer with the Lawrence-Cedarhurst Fire Department, is accused of dousing the only stairwell in the two-story building with gasoline, setting it afire and then driving to the firehouse, planning to be a hero by responding to the scene to put out the flames. He is facing second-degree murder and arson charges.

"I just want justice," Vanegas's husband, Edit, said Monday afternoon outside Nassau County District Court in Mineola. "I miss my family every day."

"I'm just trying to put closure to this," said Jose Borjas, an older son of Morena Vanegas who was not in the apartment the day of the fire. "All the family wants is justice."

In the trial, Lacey's defense attorney, Chris Cassar, argued that Edit Vanegas should have been investigated more thoroughly by police as a possible suspect in the fire, claiming that he did not make an effort to get his wife, daughters and stepsons out of the building. Edit Vanegas escaped the blaze with two of his sons by jumping out a second-floor window.

Cassar also told the jury that Vanegas had an abusive relationship with his wife and had been in and out of family court and living apart from his family, with a girlfriend, before the fire.

An emotional Edit Vanegas said Monday that the defense's attempt to imply that he could have been responsible for the fire was extremely upsetting. "His defense is so nasty," Vanegas said. "What he is doing is wrong."

"I'm concerned about him misleading the jury with all of his accusations," Borjas said. “He took a cheap shot.”

Lacey's father, the Rev. Richard Lacey of the Outreach Church in Inwood, declined to comment, but he testified for the defense on Monday afternoon, saying that he and his son never had a detailed discussion about the fire.

Lacey faces a sentence of 25 years to life in prison if convicted.

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