07/15/2003

By KRISTA VASQUEZ, DOUG IRVING and JIM PARKER, kgw.com Staff

A judge on Tuesday postponed a sentencing hearing for the former owner of Portland's popular Burlingame Grocery, who was convicted of arson for the fire that destroyed his business.

Thomas Calkins faces a 7 ½-year mandatory sentence after a Multnomah County jury convicted him last month in connection with the fire that destroyed the grocery almost two years ago. Prosecutors had argued that a blurry surveillance video showed Calkins inside the grocery moments before flames broke out.

Thomas Calkins listens as the jury returns a guilty verdict against him. (KGW Photo)

Calkins declined to comment as he walked from the courtroom. “I’m not supposed to talk about it,” he said.

Calkins had been scheduled to be sentenced on Tuesday. Before the hearing, prosecutors and defense attorneys met with the judge behind closed doors and decided to postpone the sentencing. Calkins will return to court in mid-August, but that will not be his sentencing hearing.

A jury in June found that Calkins intentionally set the four-alarm blaze on Sept. 18, 2001, that destroyed his store, an adjacent Mexican food restaurant and an auto-detailing shop. Nobody was hurt, but the fire caused millions of dollars in damage.

A prosecution expert hired to examine the store’s surveillance videotape, which survived the fire, testified that a shadowy figure recorded on the tape appeared to be Calkins.

Burlingame Grocery burns in Sept. of 2001. (KGW Photo)

Defense attorneys maintained the identification techniques used to analyze the store’s videotape were unreliable. They also questioned whether the prosecution had established that the fire was caused by arson.

The Burlingame Grocery was a landmark at the intersection of Terwiliger Boulevard and Taylors Ferry Road for about 45 years, offering gourmet foods and fine wines and beer. It had employed 23 people before the fire.