AUGUSTA — Raymond Bellavance confessed several times to setting the fire that destroyed the Grand View Topless Coffee Shop, a woman who described herself as a former girlfriend testified in court Tuesday.

Teena Savage, of Readfield, also testified during the fourth day of the trial that Bellavance had threatened her.

“He threatened to burn my house down and shoot my horse if I told anybody about the fire,” Savage said.

Savage said Bellavance and she had an eight-month relationship following the coffee shop fire on June 3, 2009. Savage also said she is a cousin of Krista MacIntyre, another of Bellavance’s former girlfriends, who was a waitress at the coffee shop, which was on Route 3 in Vassalboro.

Prosecutors allege Bellavance was jealous and didn’t want MacIntyre working there.

The last witness on Tuesday, Troy Hallett, formerly of Hallowell, and now imprisoned for multiple burglary and theft convictions, testified he talked with Bellavance several times about how Bellavance hated MacIntyre’s job.

“He said he was going to burn down the doughnut shop and kill her, but he never really said he did it,” Hallett said.

Bellavance, 50, of Winthrop, is charged with two counts of arson in the burning of the topless coffee shop, which opened in February 2009. The business was owned and operated by Donald Crabtree, who escaped the fire without injury, as did six other people living in the building, a former motel.

Bellavance has denied the arson charges and is being tried in Kennebec County Superior Court.

A second inmate, Kristopher Russ, also testified Tuesday, saying that Bellavance attacked him in jail Jan. 13, calling him a “rat” and a “snitch” for telling authorities Bellavance confessed to setting fire to the shop.

Sgt. Steven Schutt testified he broke up the jail fight by using pepper spray on Bellavance, then took him away in handcuffs. He said Bellavance told him, “It’s nothing against you guys; he ratted me out.”

Russ said he had been out of jail briefly and on probation when Bellavance approached him in late June 2009 at a cookout in Litchfield to ask for help getting money.

“He told me he burned it down ’cause Krista MacIntyre slept with Donald Crabtree,” Russ said. He said his reputation as a “stand-up dude” at the jail suffered after he offered statements about Bellavance. Russ said he almost didn’t testify because he’s worried what will happen to him in jail.

Russ said Bellavance wanted to flee Maine because he thought police were about to charge him with setting the fire.

In fact, Bellavance left the state in a car driven by his stepson, Alex Lane, and Lane’s girlfriend, according to Lane.

Lane testified that Bellavance bankrolled the road trip to Spartanburg, S.C., but ran out of money.

“We ended up staying a long time,” Lane said. “We got down there, we got stranded down there. We got pulled over and lost the car.”

Lane said he did not learn there was a warrant out for Bellavance’s arrest on the arson charges until they were out of state.

Bellavance contacted his lawyer, his ex-wife and several other people while he was in South Carolina, according to Lane. Lane also said Bellavance confessed to him that he had burned down the coffee shop. Lane said Bellavance told him he and another person got a ride there, poured gas into the building, lit it and escaped through the woods.

Lane also said Bellavance was worried about being framed.

Bellavance was caught in South Carolina in May 2010 by the U.S. Marshal Service.

Testimony is scheduled to resume at 8:15 a.m. today, with Hallett returning to the witness stand. Hallett is expected to say when he told a state fire marshal that Bellavance used gloves to avoid leaving fingerprints or DNA on a gas can found at the scene.

The revelation about the use of gloves, however, is expected to be contentious. Both the defense attorney and the prosecutor said that Hallett’s taped interview with investigators about Bellavance makes no mention of the use of gloves.

The prosecutor, Assistant District Attorney Alan Kelley, said he expects to complete his presentations today with the testimony of Kenneth MacMaster, who was the primary fire marshal investigator, and two other witnesses.

The defense attorney, Andrews Campbell, is expected to then call witnesses for the defense.

The judge also warned the jury of eight women and six men that the trial could continue into next week.

Betty Adams — 621-5631

badams@centralmaine.com

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