Man jailed in 2007 Killeen fire
Posted On: Monday, Oct. 19 2009 02:15 AM
From staff reports
A Harker Heights man has been charged with first-degree arson in connection with a Dec. 12, 2007, trailer home fire that injured four young men, one of whom died a few months later, Killeen Fire Marshal James Chism said Sunday.
Lito Totoy Beltran was in Bell County Jail on $500,000 bond after his arrest in Harker Heights on a warrant secured by investigators Friday, Chism said.
According to previous Herald reports, Will Dunivan, 19, died in February 2008 after being transferred to the burn unit at Parkland Hospital in Dallas. Dunivan had burns over 95 percent of his body. He had been sharing the home in the 200 block of Reece Creek Road in Killeen with four other men in their late teens, Joe Phillips, Matt Duffy, Joe Hill and Audie Taylor.
Phillips, Duffy and Hill were at home at the time of the blaze but escaped with lesser injuries. A dog in the house woke one of the men with his barking before dying in the fire.
The blaze was initially blamed on problems with a Christmas tree or other accidental causes.
Chism did not say at what point investigators began regarding the cause as suspicious.