Woman is facing charges in death of burned man
Police have arrested a 19-yearold woman accused of dousing two people with gasoline and setting them on fire at a Kingwood home, killing one of them.
Emma Presler of Houston was apprehended by authorities in Montgomery County on Thursday on a murder charge in the Aug. 6 death of Devin Graham, 33, whom authorities found soaked with gasoline and set ablaze. He had burns to more than 90 percent of his body, according to court documents.
A neighbor heard Graham scream for help. Graham managed to disclose who attacked him before dying two days later, authorities said.
A 26-year-old woman in the home also was critically wounded.
Witnesses saw a white fourdoor sedan flee, police said. The suspect was initially described as a woman age 25 to 30, and investigators later identified her as Presler, according to a news release.
Jail records show Presler was arrested in the 21000 block of FM 2920 in Tomball. She was being held in the Montgomery County jail.
The killing comes almost one year after a Harris County magistrate dismissed another murder charge against Presler in a separate killing. She was previously charged in connection to the Sept.
13 death of 20-year-old Sierra Rhodd, court records show.
Authorities said Rhodd was the unintended victim in a retaliatory shooting over drugs.
Rhodd, who had cerebral palsy, was found dead in her bed after several shooters opened fire on her home with her parents and teen brother inside, police said.
Presler was stopped near the scene in a red pickup registered to her boyfriend. She eventually was arrested and charged with murder in the Cypress-area killing.
Harris County prosecutors had asked that she be held in lieu of posting $100,000 bail in the death, but a magistrate ordered that she be released and the charge dropped for lack of probable cause.
By then, Presler had told investigators that she was in the area to pick up the boyfriend. She said she followed a convoy of cars that ferried the shooters to the Rhodd residence and that she was lost, court records stated.
The boyfriend and a third suspect were arrested in the death. Investigators learned that Rhodd’s 15-year-old brother was the target of the shooting after they learned that he admitted to robbing a man of drugs and money at a La Quinta Inn.