Man accused of blowing up Dilworth home indicted by grand jury on arson charges
A man accused of blowing up his Dilworth home in May was indicted by a grand jury in Mecklenburg County Superior Court on several arson charges this week.
Michael Edward Barnette, 46, was indicted Monday on three counts of first-degree arson, one count of second-degree arson, and one count of first-degree arson resulting in injury of a fire investigator. He was also charged with three counts of malicious damage by explosives.
Barnette is accused of pouring gasoline in his home at 1645 Lombardy Circle and setting it on fire, which caused it to explode on May 2. The second-degree arson indictment is connected to the destruction of the home.
A Charlotte-Mecklenburg police affidavit alleged Barnette wanted the fire and explosion to look like an accident.
The first-degree arson charges and malicious damage by explosive charges are connected to the damage to two homes on each side of Barnette’s property. Both were condemned. No one died from the fire or explosion, but one neighbor was injured.
Another neighbor who lived next door, Abigail Cousino, said in a previous interview that she smelled gasoline the morning of the explosion moments before it occurred. Cousino said if she hadn’t been on the front porch of her apartment that morning she could have been injured or killed.
Barnette’s fourth indictment, which said he caused injury to a fire investigator, was related to Jason Boggs, who “suffered serious injury while discharging his official duties on the property.”
A Charlotte-Mecklenburg police affidavit said Boggs, a fire investigator at the Charlotte Fire Department, stepped on a nail while investigating and had to go to an urgent care to get medical treatment. He was given a tetanus booster and antibiotics, the affidavit said.
No one was in the home when it exploded. And Barnette was not in the area when authorities arrived, the affidavit said. Investigators later tracked Barnette’s phone to Raleigh. But when they got in touch, the affidavit said, he was uncooperative.
He was arrested in Chicago at Union Station on May 9 and extradited to Charlotte in June. He had his first court appearance June 6, where a judge denied bond.
He is being held in the Mecklenburg County Jail, records show.
