FARMINGTON, Maine — CBS 13 has new developments in a string of summer burglaries and arson fires in Franklin County.
Investigators say they arrested four men for the burglaries, then found out they were likely the same men responsible for starting the fires. Authorities say when confronted with the evidence, three of the four suspects confessed to the arson fires.
The three arson suspects were already behind bars at the Franklin County Jail, accused of burglary, when police say two of them started bragging about setting a couple of fires.
Authorities say a jail inmate overheard Duane Bailey, 27, and Einer Bonilla, 21, both of Grand Island, Nebraska, talking about setting two fires in Wilton and Carthage, with the help of two other inmates, Devon Pease, 22, of Jay and D’Kota Rowe, 20, of East Dixfield. That inmate then told the jailers what he had heard.
“We learn an awful lot of intelligence working with our prisoners within the system,” Franklin County Sheriff Scott Nichols said.
A state fire investigator says Rowe was the first to confess. According to the affidavit, Rowe says the four of them were drinking heavily when they filled a gas can with fuel and drove to an apartment building in Wilton.
Rowe says Bailey and Bonilla had a “beef” with a man who lives there, so they went to set the apartment building on fire with several tenants and children sleeping inside. A barking pit bull and motion sensor light ran them off.
Sgt. Ken Grimes of the state fire marshal’s office says it “could have been a horrific, catastrophic situation had that building caught on fire.”
Rowe told police Bailey and Bonilla then set a vacant trailer home on fire next door, hoping the fire would spread to the apartment building. Afterwards, they drove to Carthage where Rowe says he stopped to vomit. That’s when he says Bailey and Bonilla set a camp on fire for no apparent reason.
That fire was at Gene and Andrea Casey’s camp. “This was our home away from home. And that was going to be our retirement home,” arson victim Andrea Casey said.
Gene and Andrea Casey were heartbroken when they found out their camp in Carthage had burned to the ground. But when they learned three suspects had confessed to setting the fire, while on a drunken crime spree, they got angry.
“We put 15 years into this place, every weekend hauling stuff down there,” Andrea Casey said. “Some idiot thinking, or not thinking, puts gas on it and watches it burn? I can’t imagine.”
Lost in the fire was a log book of stories from every camp visit from the past 15 years. “Everything was documented for 15 years in this book. So if I would have been down there, I would have run in and grabbed that book,” Andrea Casey said.
If convicted, the suspects face sentences of anywhere between 20 and 30 years in prison. They will likely receive less time if they plead guilty.