RIDGWAY — After deliberating for approximately two and a half hours, 12 jurors were able to agree on guilty verdicts for all eight charges against Francis Anthony “Tony” Milliard in the 2012 West Main Street arson case.

Milliard was found guilty of a felony charge of arson-danger of death or bodily injury; a felony charge of conspiracy-arson-danger of death or bodily injury; a felony charge of criminal solicitation-arson-danger of death or bodily injury; a felony charge of arson-inhabited building or structure; a felony charge of reckless burning or exploding-property having value that exceeds $5,000; two felony charges of criminal mischief; and a misdemeanor charge of recklessly endangering another person.

While he was found guilty on Friday, Milliard is not expected to be sentenced until November.

Court officials need to update a pre-sentence investigation report before Milliard can be sentenced.

To reach their verdict, the 12 jurors listened to 14 witnesses that were called on behalf of the commonwealth between Wednesday and Thursday.

Milliard did not testify during the trial, nor did his attorney, Joseph Drew Ryan, call any witnesses on his behalf or make an opening statement.

While all the testimony and evidence was presented on Wednesday and Thursday, the commonwealth and the defense had one last opportunity on Friday to address the jury in their closing arguments.

In his argument, Ryan said that he was willing to stipulate that the May 30, 2012, fire that destroyed a Ridgway Township home belonging to Pauline Smith was lit intentionally but added that he wasn’t stipulating that Milliard had anything to do with it.

Ryan said that Anthony Milliard admitted to setting the fire and pleaded guilty to the offense.

“We know for sure the arson is there,” Ryan said. “We aren’t stipulating that Francis had any part in it.”

The commonwealth maintained from the beginning that Francis Milliard ordered his son, Anthony Milliard, to set fire to Michel Park’s home, which was adjacent to Smith’s home.

Further, the commonwealth argued that Anthony Milliard accidently set fire to Smith’s home in an attempt to burn Park’s residence.

In support of this argument, the commonwealth called upon several witnesses who recalled Francis Milliard joking about the fire, which he initially believed to be at Park’s residence.

He reportedly told several people that Park was having a “weenie roast” at her house.

Further, these witnesses testified that Milliard became upset when he learned that the fire was not at Park’s home but at Smith’s home.

During his closing argument on Friday, Ryan said that Milliard may have had a beef with Park and he may have been happy about the fire, but he argued that did not mean that Milliard had anything to do with the fire.

“That doesn’t make him a nice guy for sure, I’ll give you that,” Ryan said, adding that being happy about the fire didn’t make Milliard a good guy but also didn’t mean that Milliard was guilty.

Ryan further argued that several of the commonwealth’s witnesses, including Anthony Milliard, did not connect Francis Milliard to the arson until they found themselves in legal trouble.

“That’s the way it works sometimes,” Ryan said, adding that when people get arrested, they can try to give information on other people to help their own cause.

Continuing, Ryan argued that there were holes in the testimony of an eye witness, Thomas Prechtel.

Ryan argued that Prechtel changed his story regarding the location of the van he saw parked in the West End area on the night of the fire, and Ryan argued that Prechtel initially said that a woman was driving the van that he saw.

“All three of his stories are different,” Ryan said.

Ryan argued that Prechtel was saying what law enforcement officials wanted him to say and could have been biased by prior media coverage of the event.

Turning to the most controversial witness, Ryan argued that Anthony Milliard initially accused his father in an attempt to get out of trouble himself.

He showed that Anthony Milliard was offered a global plea deal to end several Elk County cases with an expectation that he continue to testify against his father.

“He got out of it what he wanted; he minimized the trouble he was in,” Ryan said.

Ryan argued that Anthony Milliard changed his testimony at the trial because he was no longer under the pressure of the commonwealth to make up a story about his father.

Given his turn to make a closing argument, Elk County District Attorney Shawn T. McMahon gave his own opinions on the testimony given.

McMahon said that there were similarities in the stories given by Anthony Milliard but several big holes in his testimony that he acted alone.

Anthony Milliard never denied leaving his father’s residence along with his father, but in his testimony on Wednesday, Anthony stated that he dropped his father off but could not name the friend or where the friend lived.

McMahon added that Anthony Milliard testified leaving the scene along the same route in all of his statements, and that a glass jar was found along Grant Road, which supported his previous testimony that his father had given him the jar full of gas to set Park’s home on fire.

As to why Anthony Milliard changed his story at the trial, McMahon said the younger Milliard had to return to the State Correctional Institute at Benner and likely did not want to do so with the reputation that he had testified against his father.

McMahon also argued that recordings of Francis Milliard making phone calls from prison showed he was scared of the testimony that Anthony Milliard would be giving.

McMahon said Francis Milliard felt a need to silence Anthony Milliard and tried to hire a lawyer to convince him to take the fifth and tried to get Anthony Milliard’s mother to convince him to take the fifth as well.

Ultimately, the jury believed that the commonwealth had presented enough evidence to find Milliard guilty on all eight charges.

The remaining charges against Milliard had been withdrawn prior to jury deliberations.

After the trial concluded, Ryan said that he had no comment on the verdict, while McMahon stated that the commonwealth was satisfied with the outcome.

Milliard was originally scheduled to appear in court again on Monday for call of the list in two other active cases; however, those cases will be continued.

Ryan asked Erie County Senior Judge John Bozza to continue the cases to allow Milliard and himself to discuss matters with the arson case before proceeding to the other cases.

Milliard is currently incarcerated in Jefferson County Jail after pleading guilty to charges of conspiracy to possess firearms by a convicted felon.

This sentence, which is a federal sentence, is scheduled to expire on Dec. 24, 2018.

After the federal sentence expires, Milliard will serve an additional 20-40 years due to a conviction of attempted criminal homicide after beating Todd Asti severely.