Arson arrest a repeat for man

To prior charges, he pleaded guilty

Daniel Earl Cecil is pictured in this photo released by the Maumelle Police Department.
Daniel Earl Cecil is pictured in this photo released by the Maumelle Police Department.

A man accused over the weekend of setting a Maumelle house on fire with his wife and stepdaughter inside did the same thing to an ex-girlfriend and her daughter 10 years ago, according to Crawford County Circuit Court documents released Thursday.

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In the earlier case, Daniel Earl Cecil, 43, pleaded guilty to first-degree attempted murder and two counts of arson. He received a 30-year prison sentence with 10 years suspended and was placed on probation.

In the latest fire, which occurred Saturday in Maumelle, he faces an arson charge and two counts of first-degree attempted murder, as well as a charge of first-degree battery. Maumelle police reported Wednesday that Arkansas Department of Correction officers had found and arrested him in Little Rock.

Police reported in the earlier case that Cecil burned a house, a car and himself.

Shortly after midnight Aug. 25, 2005, police and emergency personnel responded to a home at 503 Washington St. in Van Buren. A 1978 Pontiac Firebird belonging to Cecil's 40-year-old ex-girlfriend Ann Houston was "engulfed in flames," a police report states. The northeast corner of the two-story house -- outside Houston's bedroom -- was also on fire.

The car was destroyed, police said. The house fire was soon extinguished and caused little damage.

Houston's 18-year-old daughter, Michelle, said she woke up her mother after smelling smoke. The two escaped the burning structure without injury and went to a neighbor's house for help.

Ann Houston told police that Cecil, who used to live with her, had threatened to burn her house and car in the past. She said she'd argued on the phone with an intoxicated Cecil hours before he made good on his threats.

Officers found Cecil hours later at a motel in Fort Smith. They reported that he smelled of alcohol and gasoline, had "pronounced burns" across his body, and facial and body hair that had been either singed or completely burned off.

Cecil initially told police he'd been burned after carelessly lighting a cigarette while working on his truck's carburetor. He attributed a burn on his foot to athlete's foot.

He later admitted to starting the fires and blew a .28 on Breathalyzer test, more than three times the legal driving limit.

After violating a condition of his probation in 2012 and spending two years in prison, he was released on parole and married Dusty Neal, 28, in December.

On Saturday, a familiar scene unfolded.

Maumelle police said Cecil slashed Neal with a pocketknife during an argument at Neal's mother's house, then he set the home on fire with Neal and her 6-year-old daughter inside and fled.

Circumstances of the dispute were unclear.

Neal told police she saw him in the living room dousing a flaming sofa with lighter fluid. She and her daughter escaped the house, which police said was a total loss. The girl was not injured.

Cecil was at a drug addiction treatment center when parole officers arrested him Wednesday in Little Rock.

He remained in the Pulaski County jail late Thursday.

Metro on 04/17/2015

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