Oct. 31--LAFLIN, PA-- The former boyfriend of the mother of three boys who perished when their home burned last week was charged Monday with counts of criminal homicide and arson, alleging he torched the place in retaliation for being ejected from the residence over the summer.
Preston Daquen Bonnett, 26, of 173 Jones St., Wilkes-Barre, is facing two counts of criminal homicide and three counts of arson over the fire that broke out at 60 Oakwood Drive the night of Oct. 25. As state police escorted him into a station for booking Monday evening, he denied involvement in the fire.
"They need to do better police work and find out who really did it," Bonnett said. "I'm innocent."
Brothers Erik Dupree, 16, Devon Major, 12, and Ezekiel Major, 7, died in the fire investigators say was intentionally set. The older boys died of smoke inhalation immediately, while Ezekiel Major was resuscitated and flown to Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, where he died Saturday.
Investigators say Bonnett could be hit with another count of criminal homicide after an autopsy is completed on Ezekiel Major. His body was being transported back to the area as of Monday evening.
"The investigative team worked three days straight without any sleep," District Attorney Stefanie Salavantis said during a press conference Monday evening, adding that the family has requested privacy. "They are showing amazing strength in such a trying time. It's unbelievable how strong they are being."
According to a police affidavit filed in court, the children's mother, Susan Major, had gone out around 6:30 p.m. the night of the fire to attend a work-related event, leaving her children at home. Major told police that a week before the fire, she had security cameras -- hidden inside Minions characters from the "Despicable Me" movies -- installed at her home because she was concerned for her family's safety.
Court records show that Bonnett had a rocky past with Major, his ex-girlfriend. Bonnett and Major, 48, met through a personal advertisement on Craigslist in 2015, and a few months later they found themselves facing access device fraud charges alleging they used fraudulent debit cards to buy gift cards and other items.
They eventually pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor theft charge and got a year of probation.
The pair appears to have had a falling out by this summer, when Major let another woman stay at her house. The woman, Tyla Marie Griffin, 28, of Wilkes-Barre, brought Bonnett to the house without permission in June, and Major kicked them both out a few days later, leading to a confrontation in which the pair began screaming at Major and Griffin allegedly broke a window.
Major, who found a device used to make fraudulent credit cards in Bonnett's belongings, called police and the pair found themselves facing 25 charges, including felony counts of access device fraud and conspiracy.
However, they were not immediately arrested, and Major told police that Bonnett was angry with her and had returned several times in an effort to retrieve his belongings, according to the affidavit.
In a separate case, Bonnett is accused of returning on Oct. 14 -- less than two weeks before the fire -- and throwing a beer bottle through a window.
Jonquil Throop, a neighbor who was friends with Erik Dupree, also told police the family had been concerned because the people Major ejected over the summer had been threatening them, and that they had talked about moving to get away.
The night of the fire, Erik Dupree called 911 at 7:10 p.m. to report Bonnett was on the back porch, according to the affidavit. Dupree had urgency in his voice as he asked for police to hurry, noting Bonnett and his mother had not been getting along and Bonnett was not supposed to be there, police said.
Throop's father, John Throop, told police he saw flames coming from the back window of the home, and ran over with his daughter to hear a boy screaming "help us!" from the second floor of the burning home, according to the affidavit. The voice yelled a second time and then the window blew out, and the yelling stopped, police said.
Call-takers dispatched a state trooper, who received an update three minutes later that the house was on fire, according to police.
Emergency responders arriving on scene pulled the boys from the fire, and managed to resuscitate Ezekiel Major, who was severely burned and in cardiac arrest. However, he died after being flown to Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.
"Erik, Devon and Ezekiel certainly did not deserve what happened to them and the Pennsylvania State Police family supports them in their recovery and grief," troopers Capt. John Nederostek said.
An investigation revealed the fire had been intentionally set inside the living room, directly inside the back door, according to the affidavit.
During the investigation, police talked to Bonnett and Griffin's landlord, who reported Bonnett's car had not been home around the time the fire broke out, and Griffin said Bonnett told her he was at work throughout the day and that he was going to the Home Depot at some point later that night.
During questioning, Bonnett denied having problems with Major, and maintained he had not gone to her house at all the day of the fire. He claimed he had been home after leaving work at Lord and Taylor around 1:30 p.m., police said.
But security footage from the Minions cameras showed Bonnett -- identified because of a tattoo on his hand -- walking around the family's porch in the dark at 7:08 p.m. -- five minutes before Dupree called 911, according to the affidavit.
Police arrested Bonnett and Griffin the day after the fire on charges related to the credit-card fraud case, and they are being held at the Luzerne County Correctional Facility.
Bonnett's bail had been set at $150,000 in the fraud case, but during his arraignment on the homicide charges Monday night, Magisterial District Judge Joseph Spagnuolo Jr. ordered him held without bail.
Contact the writer: [email protected]; 570-821-2058
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