Phillip Daniel Mills El Paso Texas man sets house on fire cause family didn’t follow Bible, killing his brother and injuring his mother.
A Texas man has admitted setting his family’s home on fire, killing his brother and injuring his mother, because the family didn’t follow the bible.
Phillip Daniel Mills, 40, was arrested Friday after intentionally setting the fire around 11:30 p.m. the night before at the El Paso home, KFOX 14 reported.
Paul Aaron Mills, 54, the suspect’s brother, was pulled from the fire but later died. Florence Annette Mills, 82, his mother, walked out of the Fandango Place residence but was hospitalized burns and smoke inhalation.
Mills was arrested after fleeing the scene and telling a police officer his house was on fire. During questioning with detectives, Mills conceded to setting the family home on fire.
According to ABC-7, Mills allegedly told detectives that he ignited a couch and was seeking to purge the home of biblical ‘evil.’
Erratic behavior on day of fire
‘Once the sofa caught on fire, he walked outside the house and waited to see if his mother or brother would go outside but they didn’t,’ the affidavit obtained by KTSM stated. ‘The defendant advised that he waited outside the residence with large rocks in his hands in the event that both his brother and mother had made it out the burning residence.’
The affidavit also stated Mills having waited for both his mother and brother to go to bed, before starting the fire.
Mills later told police he was upset his mother and brother did not follow the bible.
Roger Torres, a neighbor, told KTSM that Mills was always ‘troublesome‘ and was acting erratic earlier on the day of the fire.
Torres said, ‘He was bad news, all he would do was sit out there and drink and smoke and I noticed he was back to his old routine.’
Torres said that Mills’s family had called the police on him before because of his behavior, adding ‘They called the police department on him cause he stripped naked and he was drinking.’
Mills has since been charged with capital murder and arson. Bond was set at $2.5million.