Conway arson suspect enters innocent plea

A man accused of setting an apartment blaze that heavily damaged six units and left two people hurt has pleaded innocent to federal arson charges.

David Hartsell, 50, of Conway appeared Tuesday afternoon before U.S. Magistrate Judge Jerome Kearney in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas.

Last Thursday, a federal grand jury indicted Hartsell, a former resident of Germantown Apartments at 955 S. German Lane in Conway, on charges of maliciously damaging the complex and possessing three destructive devices in furtherance of arson.

Hartsell also faces state charges of arson and first-degree battery in the fire that also killed a dog, records show.

Hartsell filed a request Monday in Faulkner County Circuit Court to dismiss those charges, arguing that his constitutional rights were violated and that a search warrant of his apartment was outdated at the time it was issued.

He wrote that the warrant was issued Dec. 11, 2015, though the fire was on Feb. 27, 2017. Records show the warrant was executed Feb. 28 and reported March 3.

"It is my contention that all of the evidence in [my case] was illegally obtained and is therefore inadmissible in the court of law," Hartsell wrote in a letter to Judge Charles Clawson's court.

The early-morning fire Feb. 27 resulted from the ignition of two Molotov cocktails -- glass bottles containing ignitable liquid and a cloth wick -- as well as an improvised incendiary device, according to the indictment. Authorities described the device as a plastic container that held an ignitable liquid and contained a cloth wick.

Seventeen residents of the apartment complex were displaced when six units were heavily damaged. Six other units sustained smoke damage.

Hartsell's three-day trial in federal court is set to begin Aug. 23 before U.S. District Judge D. Price Marshall Jr. in Little Rock.

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State Desk on 07/20/2017

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