Two Onondaga Nation teenagers were jailed on arson and burglary charges after two Sunday morning fires left one church in ruins and damaged another. Jacob Homer, 16, of 277A Hemlock Road, and Dylan M. Antone, 17, Route 11A, were charged with third-degree arson and third-degree burglary, both felonies.

They were arraigned Sunday night in DeWitt Town Court and were being held in lieu of $50,000 bail.

Onondaga County sheriff's deputies learned the teens' identities when people they interviewed reported seeing them near the churches before the fires, said Onondaga County Sheriff's Office Sgt. Bob Burns.A crew of firefighters was knocking down the Wesleyan Chapel among the Onondagas about 4 p.m. Sunday. A few doors away on Route 11A, the United Methodist Church Onondaga Mission stood boarded up.

Two other churches, the Onondaga Nation Seventh-day Adventist Church and the Episcopal Church of the Good Shepherd, are nearby along Route 11A near the Onondaga Nation School.

No services were taking place at the time of the fires. The fire at the Wesleyan church was reported at 8:20 a.m.; the fire at the United Methodist church was reported at 9 a.m., Burns said.

Fire crews from the Onondaga Nation, Nedrow, LaFayette and South Onondaga fought the fires for about two hours, Burns said.

Sunday afternoon, a few members of the United Methodist congregation sat in the Seventh-day Adventist church, which is next door.

Rosalie Schotanus, who said she has attended the United Methodist church for more than 30 years, said she suggested her congregation meet next Sunday on the church's lawn.

Bruce W. Wilkinson, former pastor of the Seventh-day Adventist church, said that church had offered space to the congregations of the two churches.

The Seventh-day Adventist Church itself sustained minor fire damage in June 2007. Onondaga County sheriff's deputes said an accelerant was used to start the fire at the church at 3200 Route 11A, according to Post-Standard archives.

Wilkinson said church members also put mesh on the inside of windows after rocks were thrown at the church.

He said that when officials identified a suspect in the 2007 fire, the church chose not to prosecute.

"We found out when this church was burned there are a lot of people in support of Christian churches," Wilkinson said.

He said the Christian churches have held joint programs and said Onondaga leaders have attended events at the churches.

Elma Vigliotti, 83, a Nation resident and a lifelong member of the Wesleyan Chapel, was heartbroken to see the damage to the white-painted wood church.

"I had to see it for myself," she said.

She said she donated an organ to the church at least 20 years ago.

Her daughter, Roseann Hulett, of Elmira, was baptized there, as were two of her children. She said she and her husband were married at the neighboring United Methodist church 38 years ago because there had been a fire at the Wesleyan Chapel.

"It's a beautiful church," she said, a camera dangling from her wrist. "It was nice inside. It was what you thought of as an old country church."

She looked to the bell tower, where a blackened bell was barely visible.

"They rang the bell when someone died," she said. "It's not going to ring anymore. It's very sad."

At their arraignments in Dewitt Town Court, Homer and Antone quietly answered Town Justice David Gideon's questions. They said they had no prior convictions.

Their court-appointed attorneys entered not guilty pleas to all charges and asked that the judge release them.

Gideon said he was setting bail at the level requested by the district attorney's office because he wasn't certain what the defendants' status would be if they returned to the Onondaga Nation. "It creates a flight risk," he said.

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Renée K. Gadoua can be reached at rgadoua@syracuse.com or 470-2203.