Obdulio Avellanet dragged his ex-girlfriend down the stairs by her head and hair, doused her with gasoline and set fire to her. He had previously been convicted of menacing the woman by threatening her with a knife.
The state presented expert testimony from a member of the fire department regarding the personality profile of an arsonist. Mary Good of Buffalo, New York, appellate attorney for Mr. Avellanet, told The Forensic Echo that her client did not have a history of arson.
Mr. Avellanet was convicted of, among other crimes, arson in the first degree. He received a sentence of 25 years to life. On appeal, Attorney Good argued that the State had failed to establish a foundation for admission of the testimony concerning the personality profile of an arsonist. J. Michael Marion of Buffalo, New York, attorney for the State, told The Forensic Echo that he implicitly conceded to Ms. Good's point, but argued harmless error. The testimony regarding the personality profile of an arsonist was, in his opinion, "a peripheral consideration."
Holding: The conviction was upheld, despite the Court's conclusion that the trial court erred in admitting the personality profile testimony. The Court said that the State failed to establish that the scientific community generally accepted the profile or that the subject was beyond the ordinary knowledge of the jury. However, held the Court, the evidence of the defendant's guilt was overwhelming and therefore agreed with the State that the error was harmless.
 | Michael Welner, M.D. Chairman The Forensic Panel |
Dr. Welner comments: Avellanet is not one of those instances where arsonist profiling would find research or empirical consensus. This does not suggest the study of arsonists has been limited, however. We have learned much about these perpetrators which may assist the court.
Perhaps the most important misconception about adults who set fires is that this behavior is necessarily associated with sexual arousal or thrill seeking. In the forensic setting, pyromania is actually quite rare [Prins H et al. Med Sci Law (1985) 25: 275-8; Quinsey VI Jl Behav Exp Ther Psych (1989) 20: 203-9]. Nevertheless, a higher incidence of psychiatric illness among arsonists prompts frequent referral for pre-trial evaluation.
In Finland, where a low threshold for requesting examinations exists, referred accused arsonists were likely to have previously received psychiatric care 85 percent of the time. [Bull Amer Acad Psych Law (1995) 23:4 547-53]. The incidence of psychoses in that Rasanen, Hakko, and Vaisanen sample of 98 was four times as high as in a control group of homicide defendants. A high representation of psychosis, over 50 percent, was also reported in Leong's (1992) study of 29 accused arsonists referred for private evaluation. [Jl For Sci 37:5 13 19-26]. Seventeen of these had a diagnosis of schizophrenia. The Finnish study also highlighted the influence of alcohol in arson, with 84 percent of those studied having an alcohol abuse problem. The alcohol link was further underscored with recidivating mentally ill firesetters by Repo and Virkkunen. [Bull Amer Acad Psych Law (1997) 25:2 207-16]. These research findings on their own suggest a profile of a typical arsonist as someone who may be seriously mentally ill and/or intoxicated at the time of the offense, which can be argued as mitigating responsibility.
But we have also come to appreciate that numerous motives compel arson: financial reward, politics, concealment of another crime, attention seeking, revenge, and anger. [Psychiatric Annals (1992) 22:2 79-83]. A fundamental tenet of experienced behavioral profiling is that if you know the what and why, the who will follow. [Jl Police Sci 1984 12:1 32-40]. In Avellanet, the what is a woman dragged down a flight of stairs by her hair and then doused with gasoline before being set afire. The why is, in part, a very dramatic burst of anger to the end of at least wishing to disfigure. So in our search for who, we look beyond the flames to a profile of someone close enough to the victim to harbor such rage, and sufficient menace to not merely kill, but to destroy. Invariably that offender is, or once was, quite close to home. This is why many would find the domestic violence dragon of Avellanet even more obvious than the flames that spewed from it.
