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The attorney for an accused arsonist said his client is incompetent to stand trial on charges related to four fires in Connellsville over the last 15 months.

Harry Collins, 58, does not understand the allegations against him, according to defense attorney Thomas Shaffer.

"He's incompetent to stand trial," Shaffer said Tuesday. "He is not mentally capable to appreciate and know that he waived a constitutional right. He was interrogated eight times by police, and he never was represented by an attorney. "

Collins, who allegedly gave statements to police that voices told him to set a series of fires, has asked the court to bar those statements from being used as evidence against him at trial. Fayette County Judge John Wagner will have a hearing Oct. 11 to determine whether Collins is mentally competent to stand trial and whether he understood his constitutional right against self-incrimination when police interrogated him.

Shaffer said his client has turned down a plea bargain offered by District Attorney Nancy Vernon under which Collins would serve a 2- to 4-year prison sentence in exchange for his guilty pleas to the charges against him.

"You can't plead guilty to something you can't constitutionally appreciate," he said.

Vernon did not return a call seeking comment.

Collins has been jailed since his April arrest on charges related to a fire Feb. 23 at Wesley United Methodist Church and three other arsons from among more than two dozen intentionally set fires in Connellsville since October 2003. As one structure after another burned, frightened residents in the Fayette County community were gripped by the sound of sirens, fearful that their properties would be the next to go up in flames.

Meanwhile, a search warrant inventory and other documents sealed by court order until this week were unsealed at the request of the Tribune-Review. Information in the documents revealed that a witness walking in the area, John Chesleske, saw an unshaven Harry Collins near the church at 417 S. Pittsburgh St. when the fire was discovered. By the time police arrived at Collins' home that morning, he had shaved and also changed his hat, the document adds.

In the affidavit, police said Collins lied to investigators about his whereabouts at the time of the church fire.

Police said Collins initially denied being anywhere near the fire, but then said he was walking by the church on the opposite side of the street. He then changed his story and said he walked directly past the church on the same side, and finally admitted to walking through a church driveway past a big, thick wooden door where the fire started.

The fire started when a plastic garbage bag filled with discarded paper and church publications was ignited.

"He also admits to seeing the garbage bag that was sitting outside the church," according to the affidavit filed by Connellsville police Sgt. Ron Haggerty.

An investigation by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives revealed the church fire began within minutes of the fire alarm going off.

"The evidence and Collins' admissions put him within the time frame in which this fire started," Haggerty wrote in his affidavit.

The search warrant inventory shows that in a March 11 search of Collins' 980 Pittsburgh St. home, investigators found evidence that included several hats kept in a freezer, a hooded coat, news clippings about other fires, 68 packs of matches and six cigarette lighters. They also found dated copies of a publication by the Ku Klux Klan and a handwritten note. Contents of the note were not revealed.

Shaffer downplayed the significance of the evidence regarding his client's appearance.

"He shaves every morning at the same time," Shaffer countered. About the matches, he added, "So what? Everyone has matches. He lives with several other people."

Collins' niece, Norma Francy, said she lived at the Pittsburgh Street home for four years before Collins moved in. A gas heater was used to heat the first floor, but a draft kept extinguishing the pilot light, and she said she had to constantly relight it.

"We always needed matches," Francy said yesterday.

Shaffer said police were frustrated by their inability to solve the arsons and picked Collins because he was an easy target.

"He's the fall guy for them," Shaffer added.

Collins, who has been described as illiterate, did handyman jobs and errands for others to supplement Social Security disability payments and earned cash occasionally by collecting aluminum cans for recycling. Family members have described him as a kind man who walked everywhere because he could not drive a car.

In addition to the church fire, Collins is charged with setting a fire at the rear of 526 Race St. on June 30, 2004. Although police lifted a handprint from the home's siding, the search warrant inventory does not indicate whether the print matches Collins' hand.

Collins also is charged with setting a Dec. 2, 2004, fire at 103 Lincoln Ave. in which a partial shoe print was found in the yard, and a fire at 1116 Race St. on Aug. 16, 2004.

Haggerty said Collins, during questioning before his arrest, said he had two personalities, which he described as a "good Harry" and a "bad Harry," noting that "sometimes the bad Harry gets him into trouble."

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