Internet research leads Terri Hinson to Jerry Hurst, and he quickly promises to help fight the arson and murder charges hanging over her. Over the next few months they will exchange e-mail almost every day, sometimes three times a day. Excerpts of their exchanges are presented here, with some personal or unrelated materials deleted. 

From: Terri Hinson 
To: Gerald L. Hurst 
Date: 10:36 AM 10/9/97 
Subject: Sonia Cacy 

I recently corresponded with Tony Cafe and he sent me a copy of some details of the Sonia Cacy case. I am currently involved in a case very similar to her case in North Carolina. I am hoping you will either send me more details of her case so I can study the relationship of the two or let me know what news source I can access to read up on it. Also, Tony mentioned a John DeHaan as a person I might like to contact. If you have knowledge on how I can reach him, please let me know. 

I would really appreciate any help you can provide as a lady's life is in jeopardy. She is to go to trial in January and we're running out of time. If you want more details of this case, I'll be happy to oblige. Thank you in advance for any assistance you may provide.

From: Gerald L. Hurst 
To: Terri Hinson 
Date: Thu Oct 09 23:59:07 1997 
Subject: Re: Sonia Cacy 

John DeHaan will probably be of little use to you because his organization does not allow him to work for the defense in or out of the state of California. However, you may have better luck with him than I did so here is his address and phone number: 

[Deleted] 

I'd be happy to hear more about your lady's case and I am more than willing to provide as much detail about the Sonia Cacy case as you would like. There was an article about Sonia on the front page of the Wall Street Journal on July 22 which you may find interesting. 

Do you work with Winword 6? I ask so that I can determine in what form I can send you information. Did Mr. Cafe provide you with a copy of the case synopsis? I have scanned and OCR'd the entire original Cacy trial into ASCII format and also have an ASCII copy of the resentencing trial. There is also a 20-page outline of the evidence in the case, which reads best in Word format but is also readable in straight ASCII. There are various other documents in the form of long letters which detail the things I find wrong with the prosecution's case. The fire investigation report by the prosecution expert and the autopsy report, etc. have also been reduced to digital form for convenient transfer. 

If I can be of help to you in your pending case, I will do whatever I can. You might start by letting me know what happened and where you see the main problems. 

Jerry 

Gerald L. Hurst 
1401 spring garden 
Austin, TX 78746 

From: Terri Hinson 
To: Gerald L. Hurst 
Date: 05:54 PM 10/11/97 

I have spent the entire day re-configuring my computer after losing all the files I had made. It seems there was a power outage overnight and somehow, everything ended up lost. I can now receive my mail as normal but I want to hold off on the Winword thing. I know the program is in here, but I can't retrieve anything from it for some reason. I hope to have an answer and solution by tomorrow. I have determined that if anything can go wrong, it will. 

Needless to say, the summary I had hoped to have for you has not been completed since I have been sitting here since 9 a.m. pushing these keys attempting to get this mess straightened back out. Don't give up on me yet-I promise I'm not a nut case. Talk to you soon.. 

From: Gerald L. Hurst 
To: Terri Hinson 
Date: Sat Oct 11 21:41:02 1997 

No problem. My one and only virtue is patience. 

One of my sons is a computer scientist and another a webmaster. They have the same frustrations with computers as you and I do. I am attaching below a brief resume:

[Begin resume] 

Dr. Gerald L. Hurst, Consulting Chemist
1401 Spring Garden, Austin, TX 78746 

School: BS, chemistry, 1959, Central State U., Edmond, OK, 1st in class 

Graduate studies, chemistry, 1959-60, Iowa State U., Ames, Iowa. 

Ph.D., chemistry, 1963, Cambridge U., Cambridge, England. 

National Science Foundation Fellow, 1960-63. 

Work: Harshaw Chem. Co., Senior Research Chemist, 1963-65, ARPA propellant research. 

Aerojet-General Corp., Senior Research Chemist, 1965-67, research on and production of propellants incendiaries and explosives. Study of fire initiation & propagation, arson techniques. 

Explosives Corporation of America, Chief Scientist, 1967-1970, R&D, production, use of explosive and incendiary materials and systems including solid, liquid and fuel-air compositions. R&D on arson devices and methods. 

Petroleum Resources Corporation, Vice President and Chief Scientist 1968-1970, R&D, fire fracturing of oil wells. 

Kinetics International Corp., Chief Scientist and co-founder, 1970-73, R&D, production, use of explosives and explosive systems. 

Atlas Powder Co., Chief Scientist, 1973-80, R&D, production, use of explosives, explosive systems, fire extinguishing systems. 

Present: Self-employed since 1980 as a consultant in the field of explosions, fires and applied chemistry and technical patent matters, by referral only. 

Papers: A few publications in the area of high-energy chemistry in journals such as JACS, JCS (London), Advances in Chemistry, etc. Approximately a dozen patents in the field of explosives in the US and numerous foreign countries. Seminars and speeches dealing with fire and explosion hazards for various agencies including the National Safety Council, US Forest Service, Army, Air Force, etc. 

Capsule: Experience in the study of the initiation, mechanism, prevention and analysis of fires and explosions dating back 30 years and including work with both military and civilian government agencies including the various armed forces, FBI, BATF, US Forest service, etc. Extensive forensic and product liability experience. Inventor of Kinepak (binary explosive), "Mylar" balloon and modern Liquid Paper formulations.

Terri, 

I received your letter describing the circumstances of your case - a very moving and tragic story. 

Please immediately send me the name and telephone number of your attorney so that I can contact him. 

Did you receive the copy of my resume which I e-mailed a few days ago? 

If your computer downloaded the Cacy document, it is probably still there somewhere. Use Windows explorer to search for the file. If it is anywhere in the computer Explorer will locate it in a few seconds. First open Explorer then click on your hard drive (probably C:) to highlite it. Open the TOOLS menu of Explorer and click on "Find". Type in the name "TRIAL1E.exe" or "TRIAL*.*" and the program will quickly search the entire disk and locate the file. 

It is extremely important that you get me the name and number of your attorney. I have contacted a fellow fire investigator who can probably also help but it will be better for legal purposes if he interacts via counsel to preserve your rights to the confidentiality provided by attorney-client privilege. 

Unless you have some of your documents already in some computer format, you will have to send me hard copy. Materials which are already available to the prosecution are no problem, but if you have anything that could be considered as confidential such as work product related to your defense, get the attorney to send those type materials to me. Anything I get from him is not subject to discovery by the prosecution. 

Arson investigators often have the very undesirable tendency to lump all fires of unknown origin into the classification of "suspicious fires." There is no such thing as a suspicious fire. People are suspicious but fire origins are either known or unknown - period. 

The most important initial documents for me are reports of the state's fire investigators, any analyses or descriptions of what they think they found at the fire scene and the results of any lab work they may have had done. The discovery rules vary from state to state so it is difficult for me to guess how much information the state is required to furnish the defense in your case. Here in Texas, the State fire marshals office records are public documents. 

Was there a light in the closet? Was the house wiring aluminum? What were the weather conditions during the period leading up to the fire? 

Jerry 

From: Terri Hinson 
To: Gerald L. Hurst 
Date: Wed, 15 Oct 1997 18:47:39 
Subject: My case 

I received your message. First, I will answer the questions you had. Yes, I received and copied your resume. The house had 40+ year old copper wiring with the cloth type insulation. There was not a light in the closet but there was an outlet about midway up the back wall of the closet that I was not aware of until after the fire. The fire appeared to start in the attic above the left side of the closet, broke through where a junction box was at in the attic, fell onto the top shelf where I had blankets, comforters, etc.(which were hanging over the shelf some), caught the hanging clothes on fire, going across the closet to the right side and then going back up. The doors to the closet were extremeley tight fitting and the fire broke through the top half of the doors which is when I became aware of the fire. It made an explosion type sound and my daughter screamed "mommy, I'm scared" at the same time. 

The closet was on the left side of the room looking in, right beside the door to Josh's room. As I reached his door, the fire came out the door at me and totally smoked up and heated up the hallway to where I could not breathe. I need to note here that the junction box in the attic where the fire broke through at had wires that had arced in to. These wires have disappeared since the State investigator went in. No one claims to have them, but what they do not know is that we have pictures of the entire scene. After the fire, I spoke with a prior tenant who without knowing I lived in that house told me of previous electrical problems and leaking in the same room. The leak he referred to was around a chimney in the back of Josh's closet which he sealed himself after the landlords refused to. 

He appeared very non-shocked(if that is a word) to find the house had burned. I will get some things together for you tonight that I can fax. I will send whatever documents I think you want, as well as a drawing of the house and rooms. This drawing was made by the state investigator and was not entirely accurate, but I made corrections to it. They were really minor. The state of NC is required to turn everything over to the defense as soon as they receive it but as of yet, we have not received very much. I do have a copy of the ATF report and I think I have a summary prepared by the state investigator. The insurance company who insured the house also investigated it but I don't know how much weight it will have considering there was apparently a large liability policy on the house. I did not know that rental property could even have such insurance on them. 

I need to also mention that the property was not sealed at all for 5 weeks after the fire. You may be able to pull up news articles on this case through NANDO or the Wilmington Morning Star but please, don't beleive everything you read. The majority of the quotes in the articles were from a police chief in the little town the fire occured in and he has no idea of anything to do with a fire. He stated the fire began in the bottom of the closet in a pile of clothes. The bottom of the closet did not burn. He also stated that both children were in the same room and that I had the bedroom door closed. This too was wrong. My children had separate bedrooms and I never believed in closing a bedroom door. They were too young for that. I spent 61 days in jail before getting out on $200,000 bond and house arrest pending trial. The bond pretty much wiped the family out. However, at my first bond hearing, I noticed that every question the D.A. asked could be proven false. She appeared shocked which told me she or no one else had really investigated this case prior to my arrest nor did they read the statements or they would have seen the discrepencies in them as I did. 

I believe ... [Deleted] ... now that I've been charged and so many officials' jobs are on the line, they don't know what to do except go to trial. I personally feel we have enough to go for a dismissal but my attorney will not do it. He still says that as long as the state investigator says his opinion is that I set it, that I can't have a dismissal. You are requesting that I have him call you, but to be frank, I'm afraid to. He has been so determined for me not to talk to anyone about this, including the press that I'm afraid he will quit the case. And even though he's not doing anything to help me, if he quits, I go back to jail until the trial. I can't deal with that. He has told me many times that he would quit if I talked to anyone. Until now, I haven't. But I can see more and more everyday that unless something is done soon, then there little plan will go through. A place as small as this can cause a lot of problems. 

Everyone has convicted me because of the news articles because I have never been allowed to tell the true side of things. There was so much fabrication in this, it is like a horror movie. They have ruined my life, my career, and caused me to lose my child. I don't know much else they can do. The news reporter was deliberately kept away from my second bond hearing due to the fact that the D.A. knew some of the truth was coming out. And against all odds, the judge granted me bond. I have personally never heard of anyone in this state who has these charges on them being released on bond. But I will be forever grateful that this time the judge agreed. House arrest has allowed me to see my daughter and at least do some research on this. I can't go anywhere except to my doctor (not even church) so I can't go to Raleigh where all the information is that I need. And, conveniently, this state has nothing on internet as far as codes, laws, etc. goes. Any other state does. 

I have called and requested a copy of the Attorney General's report which I understand must be provided whenever a fire occurs, but they are telling me it does not exist. Probable cause is another big question I can't seem to get answered. In this state, there are two elements. 1- a crime has been committed and 2- the person charged probably committed it. Well I have seen no proof of a crime being committed by anyone. And I know I would never do anything to harm anyone. To answer any lingering question -no, there was no insurance on my children nor my household items. In fact, Josh's funeral bill is still not payed for entirely and I have yet been able to raise the money to buy him marker. As far as the weather goes, after Fran, it rained almost continuously until around three days before the fire. There was enough water in his ceiling to cause it to bow and the water had begun leaking through his carpet to the downstairs area. 

I have been told the few days prior to the fire gave the attic enough time to dry out enough to cause the sparking in the wires. The chimney in the back of the closet fed the fire through the attic. The chimney had never been sealed, nor had the one in the front of the house. Every time in rained, in all those years, water went into that attic. You can be rest assured that where I am living now is safe. At least the best that I can tell. And it is a single story house. I am very nervous about my living conditions. If I hear a strange noise, I freak out. That is beside the point. Maybe this is enough for you to work on for now. I will fax the other documents tomorrow.Feel free to write to me for anything else you may need. I will probably be on this computer the rest of the night looking for your file. 

Thanks.