Trial began Monday morning for Karen Brafman, the woman accused of setting a mobile home occupied by two adults and four children on fire last May near Cerulean.
Brafman is charged with one count of arson and six counts of attempted murder for allegedly setting fire to the trailer on Princeton Road where Craig Calloway, Ashley Webster and four children resided.
During opening statements, Commonwealth’s Attorney Rick Boling asserted Brafman was racially motivated in setting the fire, as Calloway is an African-American who she had previously indicated she had a problem with due to the color of his skin.
Fire was started on both ends of the trailer and items from Brafman’s next door mobile home were found under each end, according to Boling. He said testimony would also be provided that a kerosene heater thought to be from Brafman’s mobile home was located at the victims’ trailer with a siphon coming out of the tank.
Eric Bearden represents Brafman and says his client had been consuming methamphetamine, ecstasy and alcohol over the period of several days and was not taking medication she had been prescribed for mental health issues. He says Brafman had not slept for several days prior to the fire and she would testify she didn’t remember events from the morning of the fire.
Bearden says arson is a crime that requires intent to convict and he believes the jury will find no evidence of that intent at the end of the trial.
Webster testified Brafman was her neighbor for five years and she had heard her make racial slurs toward Calloway and their bi-racial children.
Webster testified Brafman had banged on her door looking for Calloway at 2 a.m. on the morning of the fire and she smelled smoke and found flames at both ends of her trailer when she woke up to prepare for work shortly after 5 a.m. She and Calloway used a garden hose and water pitcher to get the fires mostly extinguished before West Side firefighters arrived. Everyone escaped the home without injury.
Webster said her children had often played with Brafman’s son prior to the fire.
Christian County Sheriff’s Deputy Andy Sanderson and a retired State Fire Marshal’s Office investigator testified after Webster.
The trial is likely to conclude sometime Tuesday.