Defense Rests in Case of Black Tourist Set Afire

Lawyers for two white men accused of setting a black tourist afire rested their case Sunday after witnesses said that one man was miles away at the time of the attack.

After burn victim Christopher Wilson, 32, testified last week that Mark Kohut and Charles Rourk were the men who set him afire, there was speculation that one or both defendants would testify.

Neither did, and Kohut’s attorneys put on no case at all.

The six-member panel of five whites and one black was to hear closing arguments today, then begin deliberations.

Kohut, 27, and Rourk, 33, could be sentenced to life in prison if convicted of attempted murder, kidnaping and robbery.

Wilson testified that the two abducted him New Year’s Day near Tampa and forced him to drive to a remote field, where Rourk doused him with gasoline and he was set ablaze.

Authorities say the attack occurred at 9 a.m., but defense witnesses testified that they saw Rourk around that time at his trailer-park home 40 miles away.

Carla Wade said she saw Rourk out walking his dog about 8:15 a.m.

Timothy Barkley said he spent New Year’s Eve with Rourk at a bar and the two returned to Barkley’s trailer. Barkley said he would have known if Rourk had left the trailer park after they parted company about 5:30 a.m. because he would have “woke up the whole neighborhood” by warming up his automobile’s noisy engine.