State v. Vuley

¶ 1. What are the chances? This case poses the question of when that familiar rhetorical question is also a valid legal inference. Defendant was convicted of two counts of arson after four unexplained fires occurred at his rented house within an eight-week period. The trial court itself relied upon — and instructed the jury that it might rely upon — the fact that rare events like fires do not normally happen together in order to infer that defendant willfully started the fires. Although we agree that there are potentially valid inferences to be drawn from the multiplicity of fires, we cannot…