Maumelle police said a man was arrested Wednesday in Little Rock after he cut his wife and set a house on fire with her and her 6-year-old daughter inside over the weekend.
Daniel Earl Cecil, 43, was charged with two counts of first-degree attempted murder, as well as arson, first-degree domestic battery and first-degree interference with emergency communication.
Fire Department personnel and police responded at 6:22 p.m. Saturday to a call about a burning house at 2 Prince Drive in Maumelle, where Cecil's wife, Dusty Neal, said she and her husband had been in an argument, according to an arrest report. Neal said that when she asked Cecil to leave, he slashed her arm with a pocketknife and ran away.
Neal, 28, thought Cecil was gone, but then smelled smoke coming from another room, according to the report. She told officers that she found a sofa on fire in the living room and Cecil dousing it with lighter fluid, the report said.
The report states that Cecil, who had been on parole, fled in his 2009 Kia Spectra.
Neal and her daughter escaped the burning one-story home and called for help. Neal received medical treatment at the scene. Her daughter was not injured.
Soon after responding to the call, police broadcast information about Cecil and the vehicle statewide.
Maumelle police spokesman Capt. Jim Hansard said the house was a total loss. Property records show that the 1,335-square-foot structure has been owned by Neal's mother, Goldie Neal, since 2005.
It was unclear how long Dusty Neal and Cecil had been living at the home. Court records show that the two married in December and that Goldie Neal is the legal guardian of her daughter's two children, ages 6 and 3.
Arkansas Department of Correction officers found and arrested Cecil on Wednesday afternoon at Sober Living Inc., a drug addiction treatment center at 4201 John Barrow Road in Little Rock.
"He took off, so we called [the Department of Correction] and their team located him," Hansard said.
According to court records, Cecil was arrested on a near-identical set of charges 10 years ago in Crawford County. He pleaded guilty to attempted first-degree murder, residential arson and vehicular arson in an Aug. 25, 2005, case, details of which weren't immediately available.
Cecil was sentenced to 30 years in prison with 10 years suspended and placed on probation in that case. His probation was revoked in May 2012 for failure to pay restitution, a condition of his freedom, and Cecil was ordered to serve four years of his original sentence. He was released on parole last year.
Cecil was being held in the Pulaski County jail late Wednesday.
Metro on 04/16/2015