Suspect says pants caused fire

The man arrested over a fire at a fraternity building told police he tried to burn the cuffs off his pants because he kept tripping over them.

Ryan M. Johnston, 19, of Burfordville was charged Friday with arson and second-degree burglary. He is being held at the Cape Girardeau County Jail on $100,000 bond.

When Cape Girardeau police responded to the auxiliary building used by the Sigma Chi fraternity at 1134 N. Sprigg St. early Thursday morning, they spoke with Johnston, who told police he'd attended a Halloween party hosted by Sigma Chi earlier in the evening.

According to a probable-cause statement written by Detective David W. Tucker, Johnston told police he'd been out for a walk after the party and saw smoke coming from the building, so he ran inside to make sure no was hurt. When he found the building empty, he said he ran to the Rhodes convenience store and gas station on Sprigg Street and had the clerk call 911.

After telling several different versions of the evening's events during other interviews, the statement said, Johnston admitted to entering the building without permission and using a laptop he found in a loft to "check out songs" that had been downloaded.

While using the laptop, he decided to burn his pants at the cuffs because they were too long, according to the probable-cause statement. Thinking the fire was out, he rested his legs on a box of files under the desk, and later realized the box was on fire. It was then that he fled the scene and ran to Rhodes for help.

The final story didn't "entirely match up with the evidence," said Sgt. Barry Hovis, spokesman for the police department. Hovis declined to elaborate.

No one was injured in the fire, which caused about $50,000 worth of damage to the building, according to fire chief Rick Ennis.

Members of the fraternity went to the building when they learned of the fire, said Sigma Chi chapter member Andrew Knott.

"You really couldn't do anything but sit and watch something you love just go down," Knott said.

The building had been used for everything from designing parade floats to holding chapter meetings, Knott said.

"We'd go there and hang out, barbecue, throw a football around," he said.

The area where the fire started had been used for storage, and the laptop was used to play music for social events the fraternity hosted, said Douglas McDermott, faculty adviser for Sigma Chi.

None of the fraternity chapter members recognized Johnston's name, and Knott couldn't remember seeing his name on the guest list. The guest list had been strictly enforced during the party, he said.

Johnston is a member of the Missouri Army National Guard, according to Staff Sgt. Heather Carden, unit public affairs representative for the 135th Engineer Group.

While a member of a De Soto, Mo., unit of the Guard, he'd practice weekend drills in Cape Girardeau, said Guard Sgt. Brad Tally.

When police arrested Johnston, he was sporting a black eye he'd gotten during a scuffle of some kind while off duty on a drill weekend, Tally said.

bdicosmo@semissourian.com

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