Suspects jailed after burglaries, blazes in NLR

2 men, woman face charges

After burglarizing and setting fire to a house in North Little Rock, one of the first things Robert “Trip” Geddings did was talk about it, authorities said.

Geddings, 36, was one of two North Little Rock men arrested Wednesday on unrelated arson charges, according to documents from the North Little Rock Police Department and Pulaski County sheriff’s office.

He and Jonathan David Dover, 52, face felony charges of arson greater than $100,000, according to the Pulaski County jail website, where both of them are in custody.

Pulaski County deputies responded May 19 to a house fire on Forest Road in North Little Rock.

Deputies said the homeowner told them she had some “serious information” about the cause of the blaze, namely that Geddings had gone to the Crystal Hill Shell station and talked about setting a house on Forest Road on fire, not knowing that the homeowner’s sister worked there.

Later, investigators said, another friend of the homeowners went to the gas station and took a photo of a Coach purse that was sitting on the counter listed as for sale, which the homeowner later identified as her own. The woman knew the purse was hers, she told investigators, because there was still a chocolate ice cream stain on the fabric.

Investigators interviewed the homeowner’s sister and friend, who said they were told Geddings and Amanda Newton were involved in the fire.

According to an affidavit, deputies later interviewed a witness who said she heard Geddings talking about multiple fires in North Little Rock. The witness said Geddings told her about a house fire “in the area of Norman and Kelly roads” that he had set, investigators said. Norman and Kelly roads are near Forest Road.

The witness said Geddings was “bragging” about burning the house down and showed her photos on his cellphone of the inside and outside of the house before the fire, according to the affidavit.

Investigators brought in Newton, Geddings’ girlfriend, for questioning, where she eventually told them that she and Geddings had broken into the house through a window, stolen multiple highend purses and pairs of shoes, and then burned the structure down.

Newton told investigators that Geddings had taken a shower and lost a glove in the residence and that he had set fire to the house because there was “too much evidence inside.” Newton said they later traded the goods they had stolen for drugs.

Newton also confessed in that interview to aiding Geddings to burglarize and set fire to a shed on Vaughn Road. According to police reports from her arrest, Newton said she told Geddings to set the shed fire.

Investigators arrested Newton on July 20 on two felony charges of arson and two felony charges of residential burglary and arrested Geddings on Wednesday, also on felony charges of arson and burglary.

Both were in the Pulaski County jail Thursday afternoon, with Geddings’ bail set at $50,000 on his burglary charge and Newton’s bail at $35,000 on one set of the arson and burglary charges.

Also arrested on arson charges Wednesday was Dover, who North Little Rock police officers say set fire to a residence July 15 on North Street.

Fire Marshall Lt. Dustin Free said “every neighbor in the area had security footage” of Dover approaching the house with a container in hand and then leaving the residence just before the fire was reported.

The video footage allowed investigators to get a positive ID on the suspect, Free said. They arrested Dover shortly after.

The house was occupied by four people — the homeowner, her partner and two friends — at the time the fire was set, according to a North Little Rock police report.

Free said the fire caused only external damage, though some smoke did seep inside the attic of the house.

The homeowner had extinguished the majority of the fire by the time North Little Rock firefighters arrived at the single-story, wood frame residence, Free said.

Investigators arrested Dover on a charge of felony arson, for which he is being held in the Pulaski County jail in lieu of $500,000 bond.