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NEWS
Murder charge filed in Collis Avenue fire
HUNTINGTON -- A fatal fire along Collis Avenue turned into the city's most recent homicide investigation over the weekend.
Bradley Eric Watson, 21, of Salt Rock, has been arrested by Huntington Police and charged with first-degree murder in connection with Friday morning's fire.
The residence at 2688 Collis Ave. was divided into three apartments. The 61-year-old victim, Deanna O'Brian, lived in one of two upstairs apartments. The quick-spreading fire consumed the home's front entrance and left the woman with no easy way to escape.
Watson is being held without bond at the Western Regional Jail. He was booked into the facility at 1:55 a.m. Sunday.
The criminal complaint and arrest warrant states another woman came forward and provided investigators with information. She said Watson had approached her and provided a statement that he had set the fire, according to the documents.
"The accused had provided facts about the cause and origin of the fire and time line that matched the fire department's investigation and response times," the documents state.
Watson tried to recant any involvement when he was interviewed by police, according to Huntington Fire Marshal David Bias. The fire marshal said Watson admits to telling the woman the story, but he claims the story was fiction. Bias said Watson is scheduled to undergo a polygraph exam.
Investigators know what started the fire, but Bias said they are not releasing specifics because the investigation is continuing. He said more arrests are possible.
Thomas May, 31, lived on the first floor with his 6-year-old daughter, while a family of three was in the process of leaving the other second-floor apartment.
May said he believes a dispute between himself and other tenant may have contributed to the fire. He said suspicious activity had prompted him to ask the family of three to move out.
The family's daughter had been in a relationship with May, but that relationship had ended. The daughter was now in a relationship with Watson, according to May.
May said the family's daughter called him several times in the week leading up to the fire. May recalled her wanting to meet with him, but he said he never granted her request.
"I'm more or less speechless," May said. "It just blows my mind. The more I think about it, it could have been me or my daughter instead of Ms. O'Brian. It's just unbelievable."
Huntington Police Det. Chris Sperry said he had received information about the daughter's relationship, but he had no comment about the possible tenant dispute or motive.
Bias also had no comment regarding May's suggestion.
O'Brian is the city's first fire fatality of the year, according to Bias. He said there is no indication she had any involvement in the fire or any preceding dispute.
"Any fire is tragic, and if it happens over something stupid like this, that just kind of adds insult to injury. An accidental death is bad enough, without someone else's dispute getting someone killed," he said.
May described O'Brian as quiet and polite.
"She pretty much stayed to herself," he said. "Every time she saw my daughter she had a little present or something for her. She just seem like a real pleasant lady. It didn't seem like she really ever had a problem."
May said his family had received some assistance from the American Red Cross.
The alleged homicide would be the city's eighth homicide in about seven months, and it would raise the number of homicides in Cabell County to 13 deaths in 12 incidents in the same time period. In 2005, 14 people died in 11 incidents, including the May 22 shooting deaths of four teenagers.
Bias has said the home's older, balloon-frame construction helped the fire spread. The design was the choice of many builders in the 1920s and 1930s. It consisted of using long pieces of wood, sometimes 16 to 20 feet, to build a home vertically.
Those continuous pieces of timber allow a fire to spread quickly between floors because there are no fire breaks or stops in place to slow its progress.
