SAN MARCOS, Texas – On Wednesday, the U.S. Marshal’s Lone Star Fugitive Task Force arrested a suspect in the 2018 Iconic Village apartment fire in San Marcos that left five people dead.
While officials didn’t share details during a press conference Thursday about what led them to charge Jacobe De Leon O Shea Ferguson, now 30, with the first-degree felony charge of arson causing bodily injury or death, his arrest warrant affidavit is revealing the information that authorities have been holding onto for years.
Five people died in the fire — Dru Estes, 20, of San Antonio; Belinda Moats, 21, of Big Wells; Haley Michele Frizzell, 19, of San Angelo; David Angel Ortiz, 21, of Pasadena; and James Phillip Miranda, 23, of Mount Pleasant. Four of the victims were students or former students at Texas State University, as Ferguson was at the time.
The key information that investigators knew for years but that was just revealed publicly in the affidavit is that the deadly fire that spread to two buildings of the apartment complex started with a mattress in a first-floor breezeway.
In 2018, just months after the July 20 fire, Fred Milanowski, the special agent in charge at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives said investigators had crucial information that they wouldn’t share publicly about the case.
“Investigators here know where it was set, and they know how it was set, and obviously either individual or multiple individuals that were there that set it also know that information. And we’re the only ones — the individuals that set it, and us, who know that. So that’s why we’re going to keep that information close to the vest for this investigation,” Milanowski said.
Officials said the arrest — five years after the tragedy — came after the Texas Rangers got involved and provided the task force with a “fresh set of eyes” as investigators from ATF, San Marcos police, fire department and fire marshal’s office re-examined the evidence and conducted interviews again.
Investigators learned that Ferguson had a tie to the mattress and was intoxicated and upset over finances and romantic rejection on the night of the fire.
Mattress lit on fire in breezeway
The affidavit reveals that investigators knew about the mattress just days after the fire, but they didn’t know who set it on fire.
A resident told police that she left a mattress with a box spring and bedding in a breezeway for Ferguson to have. The tenant said she left a note on the mattress that said, “Cobe.” The woman told investigators that Ferguson texted her that he took the box spring and pillows, but left the mattress in the breezeway outside her apartment.
Another friend of Ferguson’s who lived in Building 5 told investigators that he and Ferguson had talked about the “flammability” of the mattress in the breezeway.
In the weeks after the fire, Ferguson first lied to investigators about his knowledge of the mattress, but later admitted that he did know about it but was too busy to go pick up the mattress. He said he lied to the woman who left it for him and told her that he picked up the box spring and pillows just to get her “off his ass.”
Interim Fire Marshal Jonathan Henderson said while Ferguson was among those interviewed in 2018, he was not considered a suspect any more than anyone else.
It wasn’t until the Texas Rangers got involved and provided the task force with a “fresh set of eyes” that investigators were able to get more information from witnesses that implicated Ferguson.
In a February 2023 interview, investigators interviewed a resident who was seriously injured in the fire. She said she had a relationship with Ferguson in 2018 but she broke it off because Ferguson was “too emotional,” the affidavit states.
Investigators also re-interviewed Ferguson’s friend who mentioned the “flammability” conversation. In new interviews this year, he told investigators that Ferguson was intoxicated on the night of the fire. They communicated by phone and text that night and the friend told investigators that Ferguson told him that his apartment was on fire and that his cats were dead. He said that the day after the fire he had a conversation with Ferguson about how the fire could have started. The friend said that Ferguson said it could have started with a “stray spark or someone intentionally setting fire to this mattress.”
In another interview with the woman who left the mattress for Ferguson, she admitted that Ferguson told her to lie to investigators in 2018 and not say anything about the mattress. The affidavit stated that it took “multiple attempts” to contact the woman and she later admitted that she had been in recent contact with Ferguson. He told her to tell investigators that she didn’t remember because it had been five years, the affidavit states.
In yet another interview with Ferguson’s friend last month, he told investigators that Ferguson was frustrated after being rejected for a date by one of the building residents and said Ferguson had a “contempt for women.” The witness also said Ferguson was working three jobs and was frustrated that he was getting nowhere.
The friend told investigators that Ferguson “Didn’t tell me he did it, (but) he told me why he did it,” according to the affidavit. Ferguson told him the fire took over “super-fast” and “super-hot.” They even discussed what kind of charges Ferguson could face.
It was those new interviews, the affidavit states, that gave investigators enough proof to arrest Ferguson.
Henderson said Ferguson was “startled” by his arrest on Wednesday morning but that it was accomplished “without incident” in the 700 block of East Slaughter Lane in Austin as Ferguson was traveling between his home and his workplace.
Ferguson is being held at the Hays County Jail. Henderson said additional charges are possible but that would be up to the Hays County District Attorney’s Office.
There was a reward of up to $110,000 offered for tips in the case, but Henderson said nobody ever came forward with information on their own so the reward will go unpaid.
The families of some of the victims along with some of the residents sued the owners of the apartment complex after the fire, citing unsafe conditions including lack of fire sprinklers, unreliable smoke detectors, and a flawed roof design that fed oxygen to the flames.
That lawsuit was settled before trial and the terms were confidential.
Watch the full press conference about Jacobe Ferguson’s arrest:
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