FACES CHARGES IN FATAL FIRE
TRUITT CAUGHT
NEXT TO OPD
He Was Visiting His Kids, Their Mom
By LIBBY CUDMORE • Hometown Oneonta & The Freeman’s Journal
ONEONTA – After 17 weeks on the run, Gabriel Truitt, 33, is in custody.
“Our detectives developed information that he was in the area and served a search warrant at 95 Main St.” – that gray, two-story apartment house right next to Oneonta Police headquarters, said Chief Doug Brenner.
There police found Truitt hiding in the basement of the building where his children and their mother live. He was taken into custody without incident.
Wednesday, April 17, an Otsego County Grand Jury indicted Gabriel on one count each of first-degree murder and first-degree arson, and two counts of second-degree murder for allegedly starting the Dec. 29 fire on Walling Avenue that killed John Heller, 38, a former city firefighter.
“Our theory is he intended to kill his ex-girlfriend,” said District Attorney John Muehl, “but instead he killed Mr. Heller.”
That he intended to commit a murder is transferrable, even though Heller was not the intended victim, the D.A. said.
On the night of the fire, city police arrested Gabriel for fighting with a man he saw out at a bar with his ex-girlfriend, Heather Engler. He was put in the city’s lockup, and released to his older brother Terrence, 34, considered a “sober party,” the standard procedure for a violation, according to Brenner.