Trial Begins for 2 Charged With Torching Tourist : Law: Florida prosecutor says white suspects laughed as they turned black motorist into ‘human inferno.’ Defense notes lack of physical evidence.

Two white men on trial in the burning of a kidnaped black motorist thought it was funny after they “turned him into a human inferno,” a prosecutor said Friday in opening statements.

“As he was exploding into fire, these two defendants were exploding into laughter,” State Atty. Harry Lee Coe said, pointing his finger at the men. “We shortly shall see who will have the last laugh.”

Attorneys for Mark Kohut, 27, and Charles Rourk, 33, maintained that the men had nothing to do with the New Year’s Day torching and that the prosecution was relying on an unreliable witness.

The defense focused on the lack of physical evidence tying the men to the crime that left Christopher Wilson of New York City with burns over nearly 40% of his body.

Defense attorneys also told the six-member jury, which includes one black, that their clients were victims of community pressure to quickly resolve the racially charged case. The crime occurred in suburban Tampa, but the trial was moved because of intense publicity.

“We are all sickened by this crime,” said Rick Levinson, who represents Kohut. “The only thing more horrible would be to convict an innocent man.”

Kay McGucken, a court-appointed lawyer representing Rourk, said she would produce witnesses to prove that her client was walking his dog at the time of the attack.

Wilson, a 32-year-old stock brokerage clerk, was buying a newspaper at a shopping plaza when he was abducted at gunpoint and forced to drive his Cadillac to a remote field, police say. There, he was doused with gasoline and set ablaze.

“Little did Christopher Wilson know that 25 cents (spent to buy a newspaper) would change his life forever,” Coe said in his statement.

The prosecution is relying heavily on the testimony of Jeffrey Pellett, an 18-year-old originally charged in the case who agreed to testify against his friends. The teen-ager has given investigators four different versions of what he saw and who did the burning.

“There are some inconsistencies and some lies,” Coe acknowledged. “I’m not going to tell you he’s a swan . . . because swans don’t swim in the gutter.”

But Coe said Pellett knew details nobody else would know and said there are other witnesses who can place Kohut and Rourk near the shopping plaza around the time of the abduction.

Defense attorneys portrayed Pellett as a youth with a cocaine habit who would say anything to protect himself. They noted that instead of facing life behind bars, his plea bargain could result in 22 months in prison for acting as an accessory.