 Click the play button on the video window to the right to see the storyPHOENIX –- After several weeks of sifting through charred rubble and searching for signs of accelerants at a Biltmore Estates home, Phoenix fire investigators are now saying the July fire that destroyed the multi-million dollar house was arson.
Wednesday afternoon, they arrested the homeowner, Michael Marin, 50, for starting the blaze.
"I'm shocked. Utterly and completely shocked," said Marin, as police escorted him into Phoenix police headquarters near 7th Ave and Washington.
"I'm innocent of these charges," he said. "I'm anxious to have that proved."
Fire Capt. Jeff Peabody explained that investigators discovered several areas inside the structure where a fire had been ignited. He said multiple points of origin can be a strong indicator of arson.
He also said the investigation turned up residue from an accelerant.
Peabody also explained that Marin owed a large balloon payment in September, and based on the assets Marin reported to Peabody, he may have been unable to make the payment, Peabody said.
He did not give additional details about motives.
Marin spoke with ABC15 in July, shortly after being released from the hospital for smoke inhalation after the fire.
He insisted that he was not responsible for the blaze.
"I had nothing to do with this fire starting," said Marin on July 6, 2009. "I have a conscience as clear as the driven snow, and that will come out," he added.
At the time, Marin explained his escape from the fire.
He told ABC15 he woke up to a master bedroom filled with smoke, and he ran to the door to get out of the house.
"As I opened that door, there was this blast of super-heated smoke," said Marin. "I never even saw a fire."
Marin said he remembered leaving a foldout ladder in his closet, so he ran to retrieve it.
As he was grabbing that ladder, he said he literally bumped into his scuba diving gear and grabbed the air tank as a precaution as he left the house.
Marin, who told ABC15 he recently returned from a climbing trip at Mt. Everest, said he thought he was going to die.
"This time around, God was certainly there, or I wouldn't have made it," said Marin. "It was so close. So very close."
In July, Marin told ABC15 he doesn't have an explanation for why the fire might have started, but he said he had worked on an art project the day before the fire.
He said some of the art materials were flammable.
Marin said he was also in the process of moving back inside the home at 71 N. Biltmore Estates Drive, near 24th Street and Camelback Road, from his other home in Gilbert.
"I was up to my ears in boxes," he said.
In February, Marin had moved out when he offered up his Biltmore Estates home to be raffled for a charity benefit.The Child Crisis Center, a non-profit organization committed to helping abused children, had partnered with Marin and had hopes of selling 176,000 tickets, at $25 each.The center had recently lost nearly $2 million in funding from state contracts with the Department of Economic Security.
The winner also would've received Marin's 1976 Rolls Royce vehicle.
"We had to cut it short," said Marin, who said the Attorney General's office had contacted the organizers with questions regarding the rules of the raffle.
According to Christine Scarpati, CEO of the Child Crisis Center, organizers decided to pull the plug on the raffle because not enough people purchased raffle tickets.
However, as a result of the cancellation, Scarpati said per the raffle rules, a monetary prize was granted to the raffle winner based on the amount of money collected in the ticket sales.
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