By Lisa Chmelecki,Staff Writer

AUBURN – Kenneth Rideout Jr. was taken back to jail in handcuffs Wednesday. His arson trial was over, and he had one thing on his mind: calling his mom and asking for $750.

“Is the lieutenant going to let me make a call when I get back?” he asked the jail guards after the jury left the room. “I just need one call.”

Then he thanked his attorney and walked out of the courtroom with a big smile and a bounce in his step.

It took a jury of six men and six women less than an hour to find Rideout not guilty of setting fire to a seven-unit apartment building in Auburn last March.

Now, instead of facing up to 30 years in prison for arson, the 35-year-old local man needs only $750 to post bail on a few unrelated, less serious charges.

Rideout was charged with arson earlier this year after another inmate at the Androscoggin County Jail, where Rideout was being held on the other charges, contacted police and told them Rideout had confessed to him that he set fire to 127 Newbury St.

The March 22 blaze destroyed the seven-unit apartment building.

Investigators quickly determined it was arson and focused their probe on the two people who had been in the apartment where the fire started: Rideout and his girlfriend, Rebecca Miller.

They eventually charged Rideout.

His attorney, Thomas Goodwin, argued during the three-day trial that just as much evidence existed to prove Miller could have done it. A 21-year-old Auburn native, Miller lived in the apartment with her husband, Clifford Miller, who was in the hospital at the time of the blaze.

After a day of drinking vodka and hanging out in the neighborhood, Miller and Rideout returned to the apartment and got into a fight.

The same neighbors who heard them screaming and throwing things watched the couple drive away in a black pickup truck as smoke filled the fourth floor.

One neighbor testified that he saw Rideout standing by the truck and staring up at the building before taking off.

Deputy District Attorney Craig Turner hoped that neighbor’s testimony would help convince jurors that the inmate who went to police was telling the truth about Rideout’s confession and that Miller was a victim in the ordeal, not a potential suspect.

“It’s always hard when you have inmates as witnesses,” Turner said after the trial. “Even though no deal has been cut, I think the jury assumes that they are hoping for some benefit in their own case.”

Turner knew from the beginning that the case would be difficult. As Rideout’s attorney pointed out in his closing argument, police collected no physical evidence – no clothes covered in soot, no burn injuries, not even a definite source of the fire.

The damage to the building was so severe that investigators could only confirm that the fire was started in the kitchen with some type of combustible material.

On the night of the blaze, Rideout and Miller were pulled over by police on Lisbon Street. The Lewiston officer didn’t realize they were connected to the fire in Auburn until Rideout said he was coming from that address.

Rideout was charged with operating under the influence, operating after revocation and carrying a concealed hunting knife. He was taken to the Androscoggin County Jail and held on $750 bail.

Miller was taken to the Auburn Police Department for questioning. She testified during the trial that she noticed smoke coming from the building as she and Rideout drove away. She asked Rideout about it, she said, and he told her that he had set the fire.

“Only two people could have started this fire, and nobody else saw them do it,” Turner said. “It’s always frustrating to know a crime was committed and you’re not going to be able to bring it to a satisfactory conclusion. But the jury had all of the evidence and the decision was ultimately up to them.”