Atlas Twp.-Two township residents are facing multiple felony charges following a barn fire, a stolen tractor and a hijacked purse, authorities say.
Jason Marotz, 21, and Robert Marotz, 22, scheduled to be arraigned Jan. 10 in 67th district court on counts of intent, arson of personal property worth $20,000 or more and unlawfully driving away a motor vehicle, said Sergeant Joe Parks of the Genesee County Sheriff’s Department Atlas Substation.
The situation began when police and the township fire department received a call at approximately 6:30 a.m. on Jan.7 concerning a barn on fire on Horton Road in the township, said Parks.
Parks said that after the blaze was extinguished, accelerants were found in the barn and the owner was contacted. The barn owner ‘who was out-of-state at the time of the incident? described the contents of the barn to authorities, who then discovered one of the man’s three tractors to be missing.
Authorities then tracked footprints leading away from the barn that had been pressed into the frost on the ground for about half a mile, until they came upon a field in which several random items’including a horse blanket, a bag of tools and a bucket of miscellaneous items? that appeared to have been stolen from the barn, were discovered, Parks said. The tracks were then followed back to Horton Road, where the trail was lost.
The next break in the case authorities got, said Parks, was a phone call from Trooper Radke from the Michigan State Police team in Groveland Township. Parks said Radke told them about a newspaper carrier who had been flagged down by two young white males on Gail Road in Groveland.
The woman reportedly told police she saw a tractor laying on its side in a ditch on the road, and the two men explained they had accidentally flipped the vehicle and needed a ride back home.
The woman reported that when the men exited her vehicle on Thayer Road near the county line, one of them stole her purse, said Parks.
Based on a description of the men, Parks said he and a deputy confronted Jason Marotz, who later admitted responsibility.
‘He confessed under Miranda to setting the barn on fire, stealing the tractor, the tools, and robbing the purse,? said Parks. Additionally, the news carrier’s I.D. was found in the man’s coat, Parks added.
Parks said Jason’s older brother, Robert, was then confronted and also admitted responsibility to the crime spree.
Both of the men had run-ins with the law before, said Parks; Robert had pending felony warrants from Genesee County and Jason had a bench warrant for liquor violations in Clarkston.
The two men were being held wihtout bond as of press time.