Arson suspect waives hearing
FAIRCHANCE – John Kenneth Ritenour and his wife, Dreama, just left a service in a house mourning the loss of their church, which stood next door before it was destroyed in a fire a day earlier, when they discovered numerous messages had been left on their cell phones. From the frantic messages from friends and relatives, they learned that their 14 Bucks Drive house in Lake Lynn, Springhill Township, was on fire and that Dreama’s mother, Wilma Glover, might have been trapped inside.
Fortunately, Glover, who owned the house, was not home, but several family pets were not as lucky and died in the March 14 fire.
All three were at District Justice Randy Abraham’s office Monday and heard the man state police charged with starting the house fire say, “I’m 100 percent not guilty. The real predator will be found,” as he was led away in handcuffs.
John Frederick Kimmel, 53, waived his right to a preliminary hearing into charges of arson, theft, receiving stolen property and criminal mischief.
“I’ll waive it,” Kimmel said, after he declined to be represented by assistant public defender Mary Spegar, and Abraham refused to grant him another continuance. Abraham said he already granted Kimmel one 30-day continuance.
Kimmel, who applied to the public defender’s office for representation, said he needed more time to hire another attorney.
After Kimmel waived his hearing, Abraham had him returned to the Fayette County Prison in lieu of $25,000 bond.
The case will now be forwarded to Fayette County Court where he will either accept a plea agreement or have a trial.
“I really don’t care what they do to him. I just want to ask him why?” Ritenour said. “That’s the only question I really have for him is why?”
Glover said she used to welcome Kimmel into her home for dinner and her homemade pies.
The fire destroyed everything she said he had to remember her husband of 41 years who died from cancer in 1991.
“I know I have to forgive him, but it hurts,” she said.
Ritenour, an associate minister at the Crusade for Jesus Apostolic Church in Point Marion, said he has known of Kimmel for many years because they both grew up in South Connellsville.
He said Kimmel is older and he didn’t know him very well until more recently when Kimmel became active in the church.
The church was destroyed in a fire on March 13.
State trooper James F. Brownfield, a fire marshal at the Uniontown barracks, said the suspicious fire remains under investigation. Federal Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms agents are assisting in the investigation.
Volunteer firefighters from seven Fayette County departments as well as Cheat Lake, W.Va., battled the fire, but could not save the church, which used to be the Route 119 Superette.
Ritenour said Kimmel left the church following a revival held there during the last week of December.
A visiting minister’s messages included speaking out against smoking and unmarried men and women living together, but they apparently upset Kimmel, Ritenour said.
“He got mad and the left the church. That was the last time he was there,” Ritenour said. “He got offended at some things that were being preached.”
Police allege Kimmel was at Glover’s home the day after the church fire.
Along with setting the fire, Kimmel was charged with stealing various tools valued at approximately $685 from Ritenour’s pick-up truck that was parked outside.
The tools were recovered from a vehicle owned by his girlfriend, Victoria Jean McDavis, 41, of Lake Lynn.
She told police that Kimmel used the car on March 14 and allowed officers to search it. He was arrested March 15.
Police also filed a harassment citation against Kimmel for allegedly shoving McDavis at her Morgantown Road residence on March 14.
Abraham dismissed that charge Monday after McDavis refused to testify.
Meanwhile, Ritenour said between 35 and 55 members of the congregation still gather for services held in the small house, which is next to the church, but somehow withstood the fire.
“Its a little bit tight, but it’s working,” Ritenour said. “People are showing their devotion to the church.”
Services are 10 a.m. and 7 p.m. Sundays and 7 p.m. Fridays.
Donations and fund-raisers have generated about $16,000 toward the estimated $200,000 price of rebuilding the church.
He said Tina Cavilier held a spaghetti dinner Saturday at St. Mary’s Church in Morgantown, W.Va., and raised more than $1,000.
Gans United Methodist Church collected donations for the Ritenours and Glover at a recent community day event. Money, clothing, food and household items were donated, he said.
“It’s amazing the way people open their hearts they way they have,” Ritenour said, noting that the family has been staying at a motel since the fire.
He said metal from the roof of the church is being salvaged from the burned remains of the building and the money will be used to help rebuild the church.
The Ritenours and Glover have done more than survive the fires.
“It makes you stronger,” he said.