Johnathon Cox, Lonnie McMahon
SANFORD – A witness told investigators that one of two men charged with arson in connection with a July 6 fire at 26 Montreal St. told him he had started the fire in retaliation against the occupants.
Firefighters were called to the blaze at 26 Montreal St. at about 4:30 a.m. on July 6. No one was injured in the fire that destroyed the home and damaged the adjacent residence at 24 Montreal St.
Soon after the fire, police released a copy of a video which showed two men in the area. On Monday, the State Fire Marshal’s Office asked for help from the public in locating two men for questioning. Tips flowed in, said Maine Public Safety spokesman Steve McCausland and the pair were taken into custody.
Johnathon Cox, 25, was arrested by Sanford Police Tuesday night. Lonnie McMahon, 23, was arrested by Berwick Police on Monday. Both were charged with Class A felony arson and held at York County Jail in Alfred in lieu of $10,000 bail. They were scheduled to make a first appearance at Springvale District Court by video from the jail on Wednesday.
According to an affidavit on file at York County Superior Court in Alfred, Cox allegedly went to the fire scene around 5 a.m. on July 7 with an acquaintance and described to that individual what he said had taken place the previous morning.
According to the affidavit, prepared by Senior Fire Investigator Mark Roberts of the Maine Fire Marshal’s Office, the acquaintance told him that Cox described “starting the fire by pouring gasoline on the bottom or base of the house and lighting it on fire.”
Roberts wrote that information was consistent with findings from the fire scene and the investigation that had not been publicly released.
“Cox further told (the acquaintance) that it was his idea to retaliate against the occupants and to kill them,” Roberts wrote.
Other individuals identified one of the men in the video as McMahon, Roberts wrote. The alleged retaliation was apparently in response to McMahon having been allegedly stabbed in the face, according to one of the individuals, though a check by Roberts of area medical facilities did not show McMahon as a patient.
Roberts viewed a number of video surveillance clips of two men at the scene. One of them, time stamped 4:22 a.m. July 6, showed a bright flash and a flickering intense light reflecting on the buildings across the street, and two men running back into the camera view from the area of 26 Montreal St. and down the street across the front of 24 Montreal St., he wrote.
The examination of the scene showed that the area of the fire origin was the front porch, Roberts wrote.
The investigator noted that the home at 26 Montreal St. had just one means of egress – the front door that led to the porch where the fire was burning. The two occupants of the home escaped through a window.
— Senior Staff Writer Tammy Wells can be contacted at 780-9016 or twells@journaltribune.com.
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