Two men arrested in the 2011 arson of the Pine Top Lodge in Eureka Springs are finally back in Carroll County.
The arson investigation led police to what they believed was a theft ring involving Arkansas, Missouri and Oklahoma.
As a result, the men have been entangled with criminal proceedings in other states since their arrests after the Dec. 8, 2011, fire that destroyed one of the two buildings at the 33-room motel.
The men are scheduled to be in Carroll County Circuit Court in Berryville on Feb. 11.
Richard Dean Basnett, 61, of Tahlequah, Okla., will make a first appearance that day before Circuit Judge Kent Crow, said Carroll County prosecutor Tony Rogers.
Jason Sears, 36, is to be arraigned Feb. 11 in the same courtroom, Rogers said.
Both are being detained in the Carroll County jail.
Sears told police he set fire to the motel after Basnett offered him $10,000 and a pickup, according to reports. The fire destroyed a building that housed 25 motel rooms, the manager’s quarters, the office lobby and laundry room. The destroyed building was valued at $340,050.
Basnett is co-owner of a competing motel in Eureka Springs, the 1876 Inn.
Basnett is to stand trial June 24 in Carroll County on several theft charges,said Rogers. His trial on the arson charge will be at a different time.
Basnett has been charged with four counts of theft and one count each of theft by receiving and conspiracy to commit theft. He also has been charged with arson, conspiracy to commit arson and solicitation to commit arson.
When police went to Tahlequah on Dec. 28, 2011, to arrest Basnett on the arson charge, they discovered a 16-foot-tall, 600-pound aluminum elk statue that had been reported stolen from a residence in Blue Eye, Mo., said Thomas Achord, assistant police chief in Eureka Springs. An investigation revealed more items that were believed to have been stolen from Arkansas, Missouri and Oklahoma, he said.
The stolen items recovered from Basnett’s property also included nine trailers, some still loaded with construction material; 10 pickup tailgates; a Polaris four-wheeler; two Kubota riding lawn mowers; and the “stripped-out skeleton of a Hummer,” said B.J. Baker, assistant district attorney for Cherokee County, Okla.
Basnett also was in possession of several firearms - four .22-caliber rifles, a .410-gauge shotgun and a .25-caliber pistol, according to federal court records. Since Basnett had a felony conviction, federal authorities held him in Oklahoma on a charge of being a felon in possession of a firearm.
Assistant U.S. attorney Dean Burris of the Eastern District of Oklahoma said Basnett had been convicted in 1988 of mail fraud, which is a felony. Basnett was sentenced to three years’ probation.
In October, Basnett pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Muskogee, Okla., to being a felon in possession of a firearm, which is U.S. Code Title 18, Section 922(g)(1). He was sentenced to 37 months in prison, said Burris.
But Basnett has filed an appeal with the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
“It is odd but it occasionally does happen,” said Burris. “Yes, he has appealed the case despite the plea.”
Since the plea was entered before a judge, instead of made in a previous agreement, Basnett can appeal, said Burris. A brief is due in the case by Jan. 23.
Sears was arrested Dec. 27, 2011, after a high-speed chase through Missouri’s Taney and Stone counties.Sears was apprehended by a Stone County deputy after he wrecked the pickup he was driving and ran to a bar, where he tried to get a ride. Police had set out spikes to flatten the truck’s tires, which contributed to the wreck.
Since his arrest, Sears has been in jail in Taney County. In Missouri, he pleaded guilty to four counts of theft, three counts of tampering with a vehicle and one count of resisting arrest. Sears was sentenced to five years in prison, beginning June 4, 2012, according to Missouri’s online court records.
In Arkansas, Sears was arrested on five counts of theft, one count of arson and one count of commercial burglary, said Carroll County Circuit Clerk Ramona Wilson.
Sears also is facing two theft charges in Boone County, according to the circuit clerk’s office.
Northwest Arkansas, Pages 7 on 01/12/2013