Guilty arson-murder verdict still leaves questions

The trial is finished. The jury has spoken. The felony murder case has been made.

But who can really explain the torment in Caleb Lacey's head?

The young volunteer firefighter was convicted of an unspeakably horrible crime: Setting a fire in the stairway to a North Lawrence apartment, a mother and three of her children dying in the blaze. The arson was motivated, prosecutors charge, by some twisted desire of Lacey's to be a hero.

Forget the incriminating statement the jurors were not allowed to hear. The circumstantial evidence was damning: Lacey arriving at the Lawrence-Cedarhurst firehouse two minutes before the alarm bell. Lacey dressed in his bunker gear before the other firefighters arrived. Lacey, who'd never once responded to an overnight call, jumping swiftly on this one.

These are the makings of a solid conviction in any courthouse, and this Lacey jury seemed to review the evidence methodically.

But the verdict still doesn't answer a riddle that's almost as troubling as the crime. What shrunken heart - what mental imbalance - could provoke such an act?

From beginning to end, there's been a disconnect in the Caleb Lacey case. The concept of manufactured heroism is certainly plausible. But it's so cruel, so reckless, so uniquely depraved that only a crazy person would ever consider it.

And our courts are uniquely unable to explain that.

Risking lives for a pat on the back. Setting a fire to be the first one to fight it.

We'd all like to be heroes. Thankfully, most of us would never even think about taking it that far.ASKED AND

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