Records: Tashawn Cheatham strangled 13-year-old Briana Naylor, set fire to family's home

PHOENIX - Bond has been set at $1 million for a man who admitted to strangling a 13-year-old girl and then setting her family's Phoenix home on fire.

Tashawn Treyvon Cheatham was booked into the Maricopa County Jail Saturday on charges of first-degree murder, arson and theft in connection with Briana Naylor's death and the fire that burned through her home on Thursday.

During an interview with police, the 19-year-old reportedly said Naylor asked him to help her strangle herself because she wanted to die. According to court documents, Cheatham told police Naylor wrapped one end of a sheet around her neck and he pulled the other until she stopped moving.

Cheatham told police he then went to Naylor's mother's and brother's rooms and started fires in each before fleeing the home.

Police began investigating Cheatham after fire officials deemed the Thursday blaze "suspicious".

Responding firefighters pulled the girl from the home in cardiac arrest and she was later pronounced dead at a hospital. She was the only person in the home at the time.

Police said Cheatham, a family friend, is also accused of stealing the family's dog and selling it at a nearby convenience store.

Authorities released surveillance video Monday of Cheatham getting on a city bus holding a blanket and the small puppy which is yet to be found.

Cheatham is due back in court Friday.