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WILKES-BARRE — Monday’s pretrial motions hearing for Preston Bonnett included graphic testimony from a state police corporal, who said Bonnett told his girlfriend he would burn down the house of Susan Major.
When his girlfriend, Tyla Marie Griffin, pointed out to him that Major had three kids at home, he allegedly responded, “I don’t give a (expletive) about the kids; (Major) deserved to see them burn.”
Major’s home on Oakwood Drive in Laflin was set on fire on Oct. 25, 2017, leaving Major’s three sons, Erik Dupree, 16, Devon Major, 12, and Ezekial Major, 7, dead.
Bonnett is facing three counts each of arson and homicide in connection with the children’s deaths.
Bonnett was originally set to go to trial starting on Monday, but during the motions hearing, Luzerne County Judge Michael T. Vough indicated parties had come to an agreement on a new trial date in light of a motion for continuance.
Now, Bonnett will be going to trial on May 28, a date Vough said he would not be willing to change again.
Motions in focus
Monday’s motion hearing centered around a series of defense motions, with Bonnett’s defense team seeking to have evidence suppressed, a change of venue, some charges severed from the trial and a dismissal of charges due to a lack of evidence.
Part of the evidence the defense team is seeking to suppress comes from a series of interviews police had with Bonnett after his arrest. Bonnett’s attorney, Bernard Brown, filed paperwork in December saying that at a few points throughout the interviews, Bonnett invoked his right to silence or his right to counsel.
First Assistant District Attorney Sam Sanguedolce said there was no material evidence gained in any of these interviews after Bonnett invoked those rights, so nothing in the interviews after those points would be used as evidence anyway.
Most of Monday’s hearing was focused on whether or not prosecutors had established a strong enough case to send Bonnett to trial.
Assistant District Attorney Thomas Hogans said this case had been established. He pointed to numerous pieces of evidence: surveillance video footage placing Bonnett at the home shortly before the fire broke out, clothing found at Bonnett’s apartment that matched the clothing he wore on the video, Dupree’s 911 call before he died — in which he specifically said Bonnett was there — and the alleged threats he made to burn down the home to Tyla Griffin, as told in court by Corporal Robert Betnar.
Brown, though, said none of this established that Bonnett actually did anything. The only thing prosecutors can prove is that he was there.
Credit fraud charges
Vough also heard arguments about severing a series of credit card fraud charges from the trial. Bonnett is facing a series of charges after he allegedly printed fake credit cards while he and Griffin were staying at Major’s home. When Major found out, she kicked them out of the home.
Defense attorney Mary Deady argued trying Bonnett on both the credit card charges and the arson and homicide ones would be unnecessarily confusing for jurors. Sanguedolce, though, argued it was vital, saying the credit card crimes are what caused Bonnett to have a motive in the first place.
Vough will issue a response to all of the motions at a later date. In regards to the motion to change the venue of the trial, he said jury selection would start in Luzerne County, but it could be moved should any issues arise.