A search warrant at the Lubbock County courthouse revealed new details into the arrest of Caleb Michie, 18, and a juvenile for the arson that destroyed Putt Putt, 5110 29th Drive, on February 14.
Michie was held Tuesday in lieu of bonds totaling $7,500.
“We haven’t ruled out other arrests,” Garrett Nelson with the Lubbock Fire Marshal’s Office said.
Nelson said Michie confessed, but he also said prior to Michie’s arrest, someone else came forward with a false confession.
“We don’t ever just take someone’s confession. We make sure the information matches up,” Nelson said.
An incident report was written by an investigator with the office of fire marshal.
It said, “I was unable to determine the point of origin, first item ignited or the heat source.”
In other words, in the first few hours after the fire, it was not known exactly how the fire started. If that information has since been obtained, the search warrant did not say so.
The two-alarm fire, which took more than an hour to extinguish, did not injure anyone according to statements at the time from Lubbock Fire Rescue.
According to the incident report, the fire damage made it too dangerous to use a specially-trained dog to sniff for accelerants.
According to the search warrant – which sought phone records from a potential suspect – investigators received a tip that a juvenile told other people that he set the fire.
The juvenile indicated his reasoning was that the city was going to tear down Putt Putt anyway. Legal notices had been placed on the property concerning its upcoming demolition.
The search warrant said, “Putt Putt has been vacant since 2010 when it closed down. The building has been broken into on multiple occasions and the property owners have had a hard time keeping it secured.”
The warrant also said, “In November 2015 the city of Lubbock code enforcement department notified the property owners of their intent to take them to court to have the building demolished due to these ongoing issues.”
“The property owners agreed out-of-court to demolish the building and were in the process of getting bids just prior to the fire incident.”
The search warrant was requested on March 3. Michie was arrested the next day. And then one day later, a juvenile was arrested.
