A man charged with setting fire to the house in which he was living resulting in significant damage to the structure and the death of his housemate’s pet cat appeared in Baxter County Circuit Court/Criminal Division Monday.
Thirty-six-year-old Bradley Marcus Hanes is charged with arson, cruelty to animals and first-degree criminal mischief.
A psychological examination has been done on Hanes and he was found fit to proceed in his case. Defense attorney James Wallace said he disagreed with that finding and plans to get a second opinion.
On December 30, 2023, 911 dispatch received a call reporting a fire in a house along Kingswood Drive.
When the first firefighter arrived, Hanes was in the garage of the burning home yelling that there were cats in the residence.
Hanes had to be pulled back from the burning house several times. He was taken to Baxter Health as a precautionary measure and was reported to have made comments about self-harm while in the emergency room.
The person whose name was on the lease told investigators Hanes had been renting a room from him since October 2023. He reported Hanes had lost his job and was going to have issues paying the rent.
After an argument, the man left Hanes a note telling him to vacate the room by December 31. The argument had been touched off when Hanes was reported to have ignored a request to “clean up his mess” in the common areas of the house.
The man said he left the note when he took an out of town trip December 29. The next day he said he got a call that the residence was on fire.
He said he called 911 after being told about the fire and told dispatchers he suspected Hanes of starting it because of the disagreement they were having.
On an after-fire walkthrough, investigators found items that indicated the fire had been deliberately set.
There were paper streamers and matches in the victim’s bedroom and in other locations. A lamp was plugged into an outlet through toilet paper.
There was a vulgar message on a wall by the victim’s bed and one written in cat feces in a closet behind the victim’s clothes.
During post fire cleanup, the victim found a white plastic bag in a trash can in the bedroom Hanes had occupied. The bag contained the body of the victim’s cat that he called “Crazy Girl.”
As the clean-up continued, the victim found a second cat stuffed in a clothes dryer but alive.
A Mountain Home police investigator spoke to Hanes at Baxter Health. It was reported that Hanes admitted torturing and killing the cat because he was upset about the way the victim had spoken to him about getting the house cleaned.
When the investigator began asking questions about the fire, however, Hanes is reported to have asked for a lawyer.
The victim said he lost all his property in the fire and estimated the loss at between $35,000 and $40,000. He told investigators he did not have renter’s insurance.
At the time of the fire, owners of the house said they did have insurance and were waiting for an adjuster to make an estimate of the loss.
Hanes has been in the Baxter County Detention Center since December 30, 2023. His bond is set at $75,000, according to the jail log.
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