A concert violinist and retired Brigham Young University music professor faces a year in jail instead of life in prison after a 2nd District Court jury found him guilty Thursday of reckless burning following a two-day trial.
Percy Kalt, 58, Provo, was on trial for aggravated arson in the March 6 firebombing of a Bountiful home owned by penny stock promoter Michael Strand.Kalt admitted on the stand that he and his nephew, Steven Kalt, filled two soda pop bottles with gasoline, lit them, and tossed them at Strand's home shortly before midnight March 6.
But he and his nephew only meant to frighten Strand, Kalt said, not harm him or even set the house ablaze.
Aggravated arson is a first-degree felony, which carries a prison term of five years to life. To be found guilty, a jury must decide not only that the person charged set a habitable structure on fire but also intended to do so without regard for other persons.
The six-woman, two-man jury deliberated less than two hours Thursday and returned with a verdict of reckless burning, a Class A misdemeanor that carries a sentence of up to a year in jail and fine of up to $2,500.
Judge Douglas L Cornaby ordered Kalt to return to court Nov. 28 for sentencing and allowed him to remain free on bond. Kalt faces more charges in Salt Lake County, including a second-degree felony count of extortion, in connection with the same series of incidents.
Kalt testified that he borrowed $25,000 from a bank to invest in a battery business through Strand but the stock he purchased plummeted in value. After talking to Strand several times, Strand traded that stock for stock in a mining company, pulling a vial full of gold dust from his desk drawer and promising Kalt the stock would "go to the moon," he said.
But that stock faltered and the stock Kalt traded off boomed shortly after that, he testified, leading him to believe he'd been cheated.
Kalt testified when he asked for his $25,000 back, feeling financial pressures, Strand laughed at and belittled him, calling the $25,000 he lost "paltry."
It was at that point, Kalt testified, he hatched what he called the "crazy idea" of trying to make Strand think he had cheated a group of gangsters who would stop at nothing to get their money back.
Kalt said he began sending Strand letters signed by a fictitious "George Bergsma" and "Vincenzo Massino" representing the "Fredricks Group," threatening to harm Strand and his family if he didn't repay the money.
The extortion charges Kalt faces in Salt Lake County stem from those actions.
Kalt also said he first asked for $25,000 in cash, then $35,000, eventually escalting his demands to $150,000 because "that's the way I thought a group of gangsters would do it."
The former Deseret String Quartet violinist apologized a number of times while testifying Thursday, saying his actions were wrong and that he never actually intended to harm Strand or his family.
The night of the firebombing, Kalt said he and his nephew _ who testified against him under a grant of immunity - drove to Strand's eastside Bountiful home with the two Molotov cocktails they had made.
They intended to throw them onto the driveway or porch, Kalt said, and not at the house itself, hoping to frighten Strand into coming up with the money.
One of the firebombs landed in a snowbank in front of the house, burning up some shrubbery, but the second went through a basement window and started a guest bedroom on fire, doing $7,000 in damage, according to testimony from Bountiful firemen.
Fire and police investigators were never able to determine which Molotov cocktail, the one thrown by Kalt or his nephew, went through the window.