BEAVER — A former Forks resident accused of trying to burn down the Beaver-area home of an ex-girlfriend is slated to enter pleas next week to five charges related to the New Year’s Day blaze.
Marshall Jay Lewis, who is a Level 1 sex offender, will be arraigned at 1:30 p.m. Feb. 5 in Clallam County Superior Court, Judge Erik Rohrer decided Wednesday.
Rohrer presided over a brief hearing during which charges were formally filed.
Lewis, 36, of Sedro-Woolley remained late Wednesday in the Clallam County jail on $125,000 bond.
Charges
Lewis, who is represented by Clallam Public Defender, has been charged with felony first-degree arson and residential burglary, and gross misdemeanor telephone harassment, cyberstalking and disclosing intimate images. No one was home at the time of the fire.
All five charges against Lewis contain domestic-violence enhancements.
According to court documents, he went to Forks High School with the victim.
According to a probable-cause statement filed Monday by the county Prosecuting Attorney’s Office, Lewis’ early morning Jan. 1 trip from Sedro-Woolley to Beaver was traced by authorities who matched numerous calls to the woman — some threatening — with cellphone towers along the route.
Fire reported
A driver passing by the woman’s U.S. Highway 101 home noticed smoke billowing from the four-bedroom residence at about 9 a.m. New Year’s Day.
Emergency personnel from the Beaver and Forks fire departments extinguished the blaze before it destroyed the house.
“There were a lot of items in the house that had smoke damage,” county Sheriff’s Sgt. John Keegan, who co-authored the probable-cause statement, said Wednesday.
“Anything that was plastic over 5 feet off the floor was melted.”
Interviewed after his arrest, Lewis told authorities he was at the victim’s home at the time of the fire but denied setting it.
He tried contacting her by cellphone at 9:15 a.m. Jan. 1, a minute after the blaze was reported to 9-1-1.
Authorities determined the fire was started at multiple points in the home, including the victim’s bed.
Keegan said the house was insured.
The woman told authorities she had been Lewis’ girlfriend during the first half of 2015 until she discovered he was a Level 1 sex offender.
Lewis, a head cook at a Bow-area bar-restaurant, was convicted in Snohomish County of third-degree rape in 2010, according to the Sheriff’s Office.
Porn website
Keegan said Wednesday that Lewis may have gone to the home to confront the woman and a man he thought was with her.
Lewis told authorities who arrested him Friday at his home that he had created a pornographic website that contained images of the arson victim.
According to the statement, Lewis posted the images without her consent around Jan. 12, when she was contacted by a friend about the videos.
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Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5060, or at pgottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.
