The first trial is under way for a Bismarck man accused of starting two fires intentionally.

Lawrence Bailey faces two charges of arson in unrelated fires. A trial for a 2006 fire at MidDakota Masonry Inc. began Tuesday and is slated to continue until Friday. A trial on a 2007 fire at Bailey's girlfriend's mobile home is scheduled to begin Jan.12.

Bailey was charged April 13, 2007, for the mobile home fire at 503 Haycreek Court, which occurred on April 8. Originally credited with getting his girlfriend and her children out of the burning home, Bailey was arrested and charged with arson following an investigation by police and firefighters.

Bailey spent several days in the Burleigh County Detention Center before being bonded out, and his cellmate during that time told a detective Bailey admitted setting the fire in the mobile home in an attempt to kill his girlfriend's children, who were fathered by another man. Though Christopher Dutchuk, the cellmate, has a lengthy criminal history that includes a conviction for false information to law enforcement, police said they were able to corroborate the detailed information about the fires that Dutchuk gave them.

Dutchuk also told Det. Dean Clarkson that Bailey said he had started a June 3, 2006, fire at his business, MidDakota Masonry Inc. because he had been misusing money. Dutchuk told Clarkson that Bailey had received an $18,000 settlement from the business fire, which Clarkson confirmed with the firm's co-owner, Dave Miller, was the initial amount of the settlement with Bailey.

Clarkson, testifying at a preliminary hearing in the cases, said Bailey had been a suspect in the business fire, but investigators had been unable to get in contact with him since shortly after the fire occurred.

During testimony on Wednesday, Chris Focke, a forensic scientist at the North Dakota Crime Lab, said he found no evidence of accelerants used in eight pieces of evidence taken from the MidDakota Masonry fire. He said that doesn't necessarily mean no accelerants were used in the fire, just that there was no evidence of accelerants in the samples taken by law enforcement.

Steve Lundin, a former Bismarck Police Department sergeant, testified that he believed the fire was intentionally set because other accidental means starting a fire had been ruled out.

Ajury of seven women and five men will decide the case. The charge is a Class B felony, punishable by up to 10 years in prison and fines of up to $10,000.

(Reach reporter Jenny Michael at 250-8225 or jenny.michael@bismarcktribune.com.)