NEWAYGO COUNTY, Mich. — The co-owners of Charlie's Family Grill in White Cloud will be returning to court as they are now set to go to trial after being accused of burning down their own business.
David Robinson, 50, is charged with arson of an insured real property, while Ryan Robinson, 30, is facing arson of an insured real property (20 years) and two counts of false pretenses (15 years).
According to police, the duo were business partners and owners of Charlie's Family Grill at 276 S. Charles Street in White Cloud. The business was completely destroyed in a fire back on March 18.
During the preliminary hearing on Friday, the prosecutor was tasked with calling witnesses and presenting evidence to establish a probable cause of each of the charges against the defendants.
The five witnesses called to the stand included the fire and police chiefs of White Cloud, fire and insurance claim investigators, and the chief of Fremont police.
White Cloud Fire Chief Joe Stratton said it felt as his department was "fighting more than one fire."
"We pulled everything out, sprayed it down and inside from the basement, so that we knew the fire was out at that time. Filling the neighbor's house with water, we had to make a decision to save the neighbor's house and lose the restaurant or lose the restaurant lose a neighbor's house," described Stratton as he said they made the decision to use an excavator to take apart the building in order to make sure flames were put out, without destroying neighboring buildings.
The court was then showed surveillance video from a nearby business that White Cloud Police Chief Daniel Evans said shows the two pickup trucks owned by the Robinsons leaving the restaurant moments before smoke is scene coming from the building.
"What time does smoke start to show from that building?" the prosecution asked Evans.
"Seven seconds after the two pickup trucks leave the parking lot," Evans replied.
The prosecution and defense then questioned an insurance claim investigator and a fire investigator.
Fire investigator Douglas Gauthier from a Grand Rapids-based firm says his investigation had caused him to believe that the fire was intentionally set.
Gauthier said there were three definitive origin points of the fire, and that fires in the basement and attic of the building were not connected. He also described his investigation as finding little food and cooking equipment inside the restaurant at the time of the fire.
Tim Rodwell, chief of Fremont Police, was the last witness to be called to the stand. He described alleged insurance fraud from a garage fire at the Robinsons' residents in February.
"In Ryan's deposition, he talks about having a pool liner, having it destroyed in the fire, getting a second floor liner and then selling it to a customer, and then later getting a photo of the installed pool from set customer," said Evans describing information sent to State Farm in an insurance claim.
"I took that full picture and I entered it into Google Lens, which allows you to search the internet for if that picture exists anywhere else, and it came back to a Facebook posting of a pool installation service in southwest Michigan," added Evans.
He also stated that the photo was of a pool installed by that company in June 2021.
The judge announced that the case would be transferred to circuit court, with their next court date yet to be determined.
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