Arrest warrants issued for suspected New Haven arson

By LeAnn R. Ralph

MENOMONIE  — Arrest warrants have been issued in Dunn County for two people suspected of setting a double-wide trailer house on fire in the Town of New Haven.

Dunn County Circuit Court Judge Rod Smeltzer issued arrest warrants for Jonathan G. Hopkins and Jamie M. Schewe on May 25 for one Class C felony count of arson of a building with intent to defraud as a party to a crime.

According to the criminal complaint, on August 28, 2014, the Dunn County Sheriff’s Department received a request for a fire investigator to respond to E625 1270th Avenue in the Town of New Haven.

The fire investigator, Deputy Matt Feeney, met with the incident commander for the Boyceville fire department. The structure was a double-wide stick built structure used as a single-family rental with a detached garage.

The incident commander was concerned about the floor joist being burned completely through near the front entrance and pointed out the renters of the structure, who were identified as Jamie M. Schewe and Jonathan G. Hopkins.

Schewe told Deputy Feeney she and Hopkins lived at the residence, had rented it for the past four years, and the fire had started because of a heat lamp near an aquarium that sat beneath the counter between the kitchen and the living room. The aquarium contained two bearded dragon lizards, according to the complaint.

Schewe told investigators the day before, she and Hopkins had taken their son to the babysitter before they went to work, and when they finished work, realized they did not have enough money to buy gas to get home, so they spent the night at a friend’s house in Menomonie. When they had gotten their paychecks, they planned to deposit them, buy fuel, and drive home to take showers. At 10:50 a.m., Schewe received a phone call from a friend who said their house was burning down. Schewe told investigators she and Hopkins had just purchased renters insurance, were in the process of moving closer to Menomonie, and had put some of their belongings in the garage, according to the complaint.

Deputy Feeney observed the floor joist by the front door had burned from the top down and was burned completely through while other joists, although damaged, had not been burned through. Where the aquarium was reported to have been located, there was less damage to the joists than by the front door. When Schewe was asked what might have been on the floor by the entry, she said nothing would have been lying on the floor, according to the complaint.

A special agent from the Department of Justice Division of Criminal Investigation Fire Marshal’s office was contacted to investigate the scene.

The special agent determined the heat lamp for the aquarium was ruled out as a cause for the fire, and the origin of the fire appeared to have been near the front door, according to the complaint.

The friend with whom Schewe and Hopkins said they had stayed the night before the fire provided a written statement to the Dunn County Sheriff’s Department September 2, 2014, saying Hopkins and Schewe had came to her residence and told her if anyone asked where they had been on the night of August 27, she should say they were on her living room floor, even if the police asked about their whereabouts, according to the complaint.

A video obtained from the Walmart store in Menomonie showed Schewe and Hopkins in the store during the early morning hours of August 28. A receipt also was obtained from the Motel 6 in Menomonie indicating Hopkins had rented a room on August 27 and paid cash in the amount of $74.24. Video from the Motel 6 showed Schewe and Hopkins renting the room.

When Deputy Feeney and the DCI special agents interviewed Schewe and Hopkins, the couple said the property owner had set fire to the rental in order to collect the insurance and to eliminate the rental property, according to the complaint.

Schewe and Hopkins said the property owner had tried to set the building on fire August 27, 2014, but when they returned home, they had found the fire smoldering in some paper towels behind the aquarium. Schewe and Hopkins said they had called the property owner and spoke for approximately six minutes and were told “it” would be taken care of, and the fire was then reported during the morning of August 28, the complaint states.

When deputies interviewed the property owner, she said she had joked about burning down the residence but denied actually setting fire to the double-wide trailer.