Baird released while appeal is pending
By KELLY HASSETT
Observer-Dispatch
UTICA — Former Lairdsville firefighter Alan G. Baird III will be released from jail today while his appeal of a conviction of criminally negligent homicide is pending, a judge ruled Tuesday.
State Supreme Court Judge John R. Tenney said Baird could be released from jail and his bail reinstated after Baird’s attorney, Robert P. Moran Jr., filed the motion as part of the appeal process.
Baird was convicted May 22 in Oneida County Court of criminally negligent homicide in the training fire death of 19-year-old Bradley Golden, and sentenced earlier this month to five years’ probation, the first 75 days of which he would serve in jail.
Tenney’s decision said the court found “a reasonable possibility” that Baird’s conviction may be overturned due to possible error at the trial and grand jury proceedings.”
First Assistant District Attorney Michael Coluzza opposed Moran’s order to show cause motion, stating no reversible error occurred during the trial and that there is no possibility the conviction will be reversed on appeal.
If an appeal is not issued within 120 days of the decision, Tenney said the stay will be terminated and Baird will go back to jail.
Baird was convicted by a jury for his role in the Sept. 25 “live burn” exercise in an empty farmhouse in Westmoreland. He was found not guilty of second-degree manslaughter and second-degree assault for the accident that also severely burned firefighters Benjamin Morris and Adam Croman.
Baird said he planned the fire training exercise and ignited the first-floor sofa bed that eventually spread to the rest of the house, but testified during the trial that others were in charge at the scene.
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