The trial for the Oneida County sheriff’s deputy accused of setting a house on fire while on duty in an attempt to kill multiple people continued on Monday, June 22.
Aaron Alshaman stood before Judge Robert Bauer at the Oneida Courthouse in Utica on Monday morning, with day five of the trial continuing witness testimony.
Alshaman, 29, of Lee Center, is accused of setting fire to a Utica residence on April 9, 2025.
Jennifer Gudnaya called 911 when they became overwhelmed with smoke in the interior of the residence, and fled outside with her infant child and two parents.
Alshaman, the father of the infant, is charged with second-degree arson and four counts of second-degree attempted murder. Alshaman pleaded not guilty to all charges and bail was set at $250,000 or $500,000 cash bond.
He had been a member of the Oneida County Sheriff’s Office for around five years, serving from Sept. 2020 to March 2023 before serving shortly with the Rome Police Department and returning to the sheriff’s office on August 2024.
If convicted of his top charge alone, second-degree arson, Alshaman faces up to 25 years in state prison.
Jury selection finished June 15 and both prosecution and defense gave their opening statements to the jury.
Oneida County District Attorney Todd Carville said that money and his financial future was the motivation for Aaron Alshaman’s alleged attempted murder and arson.
“What makes this case so disturbing is that Aaron Alshaman, who took an oath to protect, started a fire to the residence of his own son while knowing they were there and with intent to cause the death of his own son,” Carville said. “And he did it while on duty as a sheriff’s duty.”
Defense Attorney John Leonard said that the prosecution was “planting the seed” that Alshaman was a “bad guy” and that it was “crazy” that Alshaman would kill people over paying more child support and that the prosecution’s entire case was circumstantial.
Sheriff’s Office surveillance
At some time a little after 3 a.m., Paravati said Alshaman stopped at the Sheriff’s department of public works for 14 minutes. Paravati said there isn’t much to do there, besides clean vehicles or fuel them via a fuel card. After that 14 minutes, Paravati said Alshaman returned to the Sheriff’s Office and stopped his DWI patrol vehicle and parked next to his personal vehicle.
According to Paravati, on the Sheriff’s Office surveillance cameras, Alshaman could be seen with a flashlight moving something into his vehicle. At around some time after Alshaman clocked out of his shift at 4:31 a.m. and the end of his DWI patrol, Paravati said that Alshaman returned to the parking lot, parked next to his vehicle and said that something red in color can be seen being taken out of his patrol vehicle and put into his truck.
Alshaman then clocks in for his overtime shift and leaves the Sheriff’s Office with another deputy.
Found in the area
Paravati confirmed that Alshaman’s vehicle did in fact pass the Gudnay residence and then parked in the church parking lot.
As part of a briefing, the Utica Police Department showed the Oneida County Sheriff’s Office video of an individual dressed in black and carrying a gas can.
Paravati said he felt that the individual’s build and stature was similar to Alshaman’s.
Recorded movements
Oneida County Sheriff’s Office Lieutenant Christopher James Paravati said that Alshaman was assigned one of the DWI patrol vehicles, labeled vehicle 460.
When asked, Paravati said he shared Alshaman’s work schedule with the Utica Police Department. Alshaman was scheduled to start work at 10 a.m. on April 8, 2025 and finished work with overtime at 10 a.m. on April 9, 2025.
After learning that Alshaman was indeed working, Paravati said he was able to watch a vehicle replay and showed where vehicle 406 traveled.
“I was told it was believed the initial fire started at 4:03 a.m.,” Paravati said. “At 3:30 a.m., Alshaman’s vehicle arrives in west Utica and at 4:07, it leaves.”
The undersheriff was notified by Paravati and the Utica Police Department was given access to the Trackstar AVL as part of its investigation.
23rd witness called
Oneida County Sheriff’s Office Lieutenant Christopher James Paravati was called as the 23rd witness in the Alshaman case.
Paravati was contacted by the Utica Police Department on April 9 to investigate Alshaman’s whereabouts during his shift.
“I was told they were investigating an arson and they wanted to rule Alshaman out since he was working that night,” Paravati said.
Trackstar Automatic Vehicle Locator is installed on all Sheriff vehicles and it was used to track the whereabouts of Alshaman.
Motion denied
Judge Bauer denied the motion, saying that there are 10 points in regards to the law and submittal of evidence by the people. And taking those 10 points into consideration, Bauer said the people did its due-diligence.
Leonard submitted a USB drive with an 18 minute video related to an earlier line of questioning, which he says shows Jennifer Gudnaya saying she had someone hit her car during deposition.
Day 5 begins
Five days into the Aaron Alshaman trial and 22 witnesses have been called by the prosecution. The defense, Leonard, made a motion to strike some evidence and request a speedy trial due to what Leonard claimed to what was new evidence.
“It’s our second week in and I’m still getting material,” Leonard said. “It’s so late, I’m renewing my motion to invalidate the supplemental.”
When asked by the judge why the court is getting evidence so late, Carville said that the only new evidence was an email with an attachment that had been forgotten, but not relevant.
“Saturday morning, after reviewing his folder, he found attachments on an email and was afraid that he did not include it. One was a sample of an audit and one was data in a format that couldn’t be opened,” Carville explained, saying the attachments were not judicious in nature and that everything had been submitted.
Leonard said that the data that couldn’t be opened was Axon GPS data related to Alshaman and that he “…would have liked it” before jury selection.
This article originally appeared on Observer-Dispatch: Prosecution calls more witnesses in Alshaman attempted murder trial
Reporting by Casey Pritchard, Utica Observer Dispatch / Observer-Dispatch
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By Casey Pritchard, Utica Observer Dispatch | USA TODAY Network
