SCRANTON, Pa. — A man from Carbon County is locked up in Lackawanna County after turning himself in to face arson charges.
Barton MacConnell is charged with arson for allegedly torching a home on Brook Street on Aug. 3. The charred-out residence belonged to Mike Albert, who was accused in Schuylkill County of killing MacConnell's employer, Mark Boyle, by striking him with a dump truck.
As the police in Schuylkill County took Albert into custody, a crowd gathered and banged on the windows of a police vehicle to get to him.
"After they got Mike out of there, the Chief indicated that one of Mark's employees known as 'Bart' pointed at Mike's truck and stated that somebody better get the truck out of there or he was going to burn it down," Detectives Vince Uher and Melissa Forsette wrote in an affidavit. "Later that night, Mike's house was on fire."
Investigators determined the fire at Boyle's home was a case of arson with the help of K-9 investigators who sniffed out ignitable liquids, which lab testing later determined was gasoline.
A Ring Doorbell camera near the fire scene captured MacConnell's truck driving by at around the time the fire was reported.
Cell phone data and follow-up interviews led city detectives to believe he made a phone call near the fire scene in the pre-dawn hours before Albert's house caught fire.
In the days after the fire, conversation at MacConnell's workplace touched on what might have ignited Albert's home, an acquaintance told police.
"Maybe I did do it," MacConnell said, according to a criminal complaint.
At the time, they took it as a joke.
Albert remains locked up in the Schuylkill County jail pending the outcome of the third-degree murder case filed against him.
MacConnell surrendered on Thursday after an arrest warrant was issued. He was unable to post bail and is in Lackawanna County Prison. He is scheduled for a court appearance in February.