On Tuesday, December 16, 2025, at the Temple of Justice in Monrovia, during the proceedings of Criminal Court ‘A’, the Capitol Building arson case took a dramatic turn. Prosecution witness Rafael Wilson from the Liberia National Police (LNP) provided explosive testimony, directly linking the defendants to the crime scene.
Inspector Wilson, who has spent eight days on cross-examination, explained to the jury that defendant Thomas Etheridge and others entered the Capitol’s compound in a vehicle with the license plate HOR 98, which remains unaccounted for. He insisted that this vehicle transported the suspects to the Capitol.
Wilson described how authorities initially invited 59 additional persons of interest for questioning, highlighting the investigation’s scale. He noted that state police guarded only the outer perimeter, while internal security left by 5:00 p.m., leaving the building vulnerable at night.
According to him, investigators discovered a Clorox bottle with a gasoline smell near the speaker’s parking spot, which was collected as evidence. A digital report allegedly placed Etheridge at the crime scene, further strengthening the prosecution’s case.
In response, defense lawyers pressed Wilson on why no formal written request was made to recover the vehicle with the HOR 98 plate. He admitted that the request was only verbal, raising questions about investigative errors. This led the defense team to emphasize the lack of documentation and challenge the reliability of geo-spatial findings. The defendants, through their lawyers, pointed to procedural lapses, seeking to cast doubt on whether the evidence genuinely connects Etheridge and the others to the arson.
On December 18, 2024, a fire devastated the Legislature’s Joint Chambers, prompting national outrage and resulting in indictments for arson, criminal conspiracy, criminal mischief, attempted murder, and endangerment of public infrastructure. The trial is set to resume on Thursday, December 18, 2025, with more witnesses expected to take the stand. The defendants plan to intensify their assault on the credibility of the investigation, setting the stage for further courtroom battles.
Recently, Rafael Wilson acknowledged that defendant John Nyanti was brought back to Liberia to assist the Government of Liberia as a witness for the prosecution. Wilson confirmed that this arrangement later collapsed. He explained that Nyanti was arrested in Ghana with the support of Ghanaian police and extradited to Liberia under the expectation that he would cooperate with prosecutors. Nyanti was placed in a hotel along the Roberts International Airport (RIA) road to prevent outside contact while the arrangement was being negotiated.
When questioned by defense counsel, Cllr. Arthur T. Johnson, Wilson struggled to clarify key investigative steps. He could not confirm whether Nyanti wrote or signed his own police statement, stating that another officer conducted the interrogation and signed the document instead. Although Wilson claimed that Nyanti’s rights were respected, he did not clarify whether Nyanti was initially taken to the National Security Agency (NSA) before being turned over to the LNP.
The case became more contentious when defendant John Nyanti accused the Boakai administration of attempting to bribe him. On June 13, 2025, as he was escorted in handcuffs to Criminal Court “A,” Nyanti shouted that senior officials had offered him US$200,000 to falsely implicate former Speaker J. Fonati Koffa and other lawmakers also charged in relation to the case.
