Gainesville man sets family’s dirt bike on fire

A Gainesville man, 34-year-old Robert Chambers, is being held in the Ozark County Jail on a $3,500 cash-only bond in connection with a bizarre incident in which he was high on drugs and allegedly broke into Lee and Stephanie Bearden’s shed in Gainesville. Chambers pulled the Beardens’ dirtbike out into their yard and set it on fire. He faces burglary and property-damage charges.

According to the Ozark County Times, the probable cause statement filed in the case says, Ozark County Deputy Tiffany Fox was dispatched to the Bearden residence on Highway 181 in Gainesville after property damage was reported to the Ozark County Sheriff’s Department. When Fox arrived on scene, she spoke with Stephanie Bearden, who told the officer her dirtbike had been taken out of the shed and set on fire in her yard.

She told the officer at about 8:30 p.m. her neighbor Jared Hambelton knocked on her door and told her there was a fire in her back yard. Stephanie said when she went back to see what was going on and she noticed her dirtbike had been removed from her shed. Several other items in the shed had been moved to allow access to the bike, a lighter was sitting on the floor of the shed and a gas can was moved from its normal location and appeared to have been used. She found the burned dirtbike and a large area of burned grass outside. Stephanie said she found Chambers lying on the ground a few yards from where the bike was burned.

Fox went into the Beardens’ yard and found a man lying face down on the ground. Fox attempted to ask him questions, but he didn’t respond and appeared to be under the influence of something. Fox wrote she was able to identify the man as Chambers.

The lighter was taken as evidence, and the scene was photographed. Chambers was said to have been in another person’s yard in the same area about 30 minutes prior to the incident at the Beardens’ house.

When Fox interviewed Chambers the next day, he reportedly told her he took oxycodone intravenously and did not remember anything past walking down Highway 181.

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