Police: Duo torched house for drug money
A nearly 10-month-old house explosion and fire in Butler has apparently been solved.
State police Wednesday obtained arrest warrants for William L. Gold, 50, of Butler and Robert J. Wilhelm, 39, of Washington Township.
Investigators allege Gold paid Wilhelm to burn down the two-story house at 111 South St. on May 29.
The day before, the two men allegedly broke into the home and stole a safe purportedly filled with money that belonging to a pair of suspected Philadelphia drug dealers.
The Memorial Day fire, police believe, was set to cover up the earlier crime.
Gold and Wilhelm are accused of a list of felonies including arson and burglary.
Rumors in the neighborhood swirled about the reason behind the fire from the onset. Some residents alluded to the rip-off of the purported dealers staying there. Others speculated it was a meth lab gone wrong.
The explosion and fire shook the block about 1 a.m. It was bad enough, city firefighters found, that it blew out the front door.
The entire back wall on the first floor and basement were immediately gone and one of the side walls was buckled.
Butler police evacuated some neighbors living closest to the house, including Gold and his family, who were living next door.
In a short time, flames had devoured the rental house, which was vacant. The two tenants were in the Butler County Prison following their arrests days earlier on felony drug charges.
Trooper Luke Nelson, a deputy fire marshal, was unable to determine a cause and eventually listed the blaze as undetermined.
The investigation remained dormant until authorities got a tip that named names. The information would prove virtually spot on.
Nelson and Trooper Christopher Balcik, a criminal investigator who also serves as a deputy fire marshal, on Dec. 14 interviewed Wilhelm.He waived his Miranda rights and, according to court documents, sang like the proverbial canary.Wilhelm recounted that on May 28, Gold, who he identified as a “friend and fellow drug addict,” and another man he only knew by the last name Miller,” called and asked for his help to steal a large safe from the South Street house.By the time the troopers talked to Wilhelm, they already knew Gold's connection to the house.The owner, Jeffrey Martincic of Florida, told police that he had entered into a “rent-to-own” agreement with Gold, who would fail to make any payments.The defendant further violated the terms of the agreement when he sublet the house to the two alleged drug dealers, documents said.Butler Township police — by chance — arrested the Philadelphia men May 25 after they were caught napping in a pickup truck illegally parked in a handicap spot at a convenience store.Police said they subsequently found the pair with bags of cocaine and more than $1,000 in currency. Both were placed in the Butler County Prison.According to documents, Wilhelm said he, Gold and “Miller” went to the house May 28 and “manhandled” the heavy safe from a second-floor bedroom downstairs.The trio took it out the front door and loaded it into a pickup truck. He claimed he parted company after Gold and “Miller” drove away in the truck.For his help in stealing the safe, Wilhelm said Gold paid him $1,000.The next day, documents said, he related that Gold called him again, this time offering him another $1,000 to burn down the house.Wilhelm told investigators that Gold wanted the house torched because he was “afraid the drug dealers they stole from might have cameras inside the residence.”Police said Wilhelm acknowledged he bought 10 gallons of gas that he filled in two cans. He drove to Gold's house and dropped off the cans behind the garage.He recounted that he drove to Hickory Street nearby, parked his car and walked back to get the cans of gas, which he poured throughout the vacant house.Wilhelm said he lit a piece of paper and tossed it in the front door, causing an immediate explosion.
“The front door of the house proceeded to blow across the street,” according to a police affidavit, “narrowly missing (Wilhelm) and he had to run between the houses through flames to get away.”After setting the fire, he told investigators that he drove to a Butler Township motel, rented a room and spent the next several days using drugs with friends.“Wilhelm also informed (police),” the affidavit said, “that he's lucky to be alive because of the magnitude of the explosion and fire and that he's had nightmares about it ever since.”Investigators said they later recovered the remains of the stolen safe at the bottom of a hill in shallow water along Thorn Run Road in Oakland Township.It appeared the bottom of the safe and the inner metal box had been cut out with a torch. Police did not indicate what they believe was in the safe.Gold and Wilhelm are both charged with arson, burglary, conspiracy, risking a catastrophe and criminal mischief. Additionally, Gold is charged with criminal solicitation.Court records showed that Gold is free on $100,000 bail in connection with a felony drug case in Butler. City police said they found Gold and two other men in a house Dec. 2 with three plastic bags containing a combined 45 grams of crack and $3,729 in currency.That case is pending trial.In an unrelated case, Butler police Oct. 5 arrested Wilhelm after they say they caught him with more than two dozen bags of heroin and for violating a woman's protection from abuse order.He was in the county prison until Dec. 29 when he was admitted into a drug rehabilitation facility. He pleaded guilty Feb. 28 to a misdemeanor charge of disorderly conduct and got no further penalty.
