Apple Valley Man Charged With Arson in Connection With Friday House Fire

An Apple Valley man has been charged with arson in connection with that significantly damaged an Apple Valley home and chased the six people in the house out into the night.

Aaron Michael Ferrarese, 21, faces two felony charges: first-degree arson, which carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and a $20,000 fine, and second-degree arson, which has a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a $20,000 fine.

Ferrarese, who was arrested Friday, remains in the Dakota County Jail on a $200,000 bond. An omnibus hearing in his case is scheduled for Sept. 26 in Dakota County District Court in Hastings.

According to the criminal complaint, Apple Valley police and firefighters were called to a home on Fridley Way just before 1:30 a.m. Friday, after a couple staying there—parents of one of the homeowners—heard a noise and found a fire blazing on the inside and outside of the front door.

The couple woke up four high-school-age girls who were staying at the home as guests of their granddaughter, and all six escaped the home through the back door.

While firefighters were putting out the fire, witnesses told authorities that they had seen a man wearing dark clothing standing at the end of the driveway of a nearby home, and that he had been on the scene when officers arrived, according to the complaint.

Two more witnesses described the man to officers, telling them that they had spoken to the man and that he appeared “out of place." Officers checked squad car video and allegedly saw the man leaning against a garbage container near one of the squad cars.

Another person identified a possible suspect, telling police that the man had a dispute with the grandson of the couple staying in the home that was on fire, according to the complaint.

Officers went to a nearby home to talk to the father of the man witnesses had identified. The father told them that his son been working and was on the way home at the time the fire started.

But that man’s father identified Ferrarese—one of his son’s friends—and said Ferrarese had a “grudge” against the son of the owners of the home where the fire had been discovered.

Ferrarese allegedly felt the son whose family lived in the house that was on fire "got away with things and had things coming to him,” the complaint says, and that Ferrarese had threatened to burn down the home.

The father told police that Ferrarese had collected paper from the garage and a small amount of gasoline and had left his home at about 1 a.m. Then Ferrarese called the father's son and told him he had “taken care of” the man against whom he allegedly held a grudge, according to the complaint.

Police interviewed Ferrarese later Friday morning at the . He told police that he had been drinking at his friend’s Apple Valley home and had then gone to his girlfriend’s home in Burnsville, but allegedly refused to answer more questions.

Ferrarese was put into a jail cell, where he tore the zipper out of his jail uniform, telling police that he didn’t want to live and that they should just “take him to prison,” according to the complaint.

Ferrarese told police he wanted to make a statement, and waived his right to have an attorney present, the complaint says. He told them that he put some gasoline in a soda can, drove to the Fridley Way home and started a fire on the front porch, according to the complaint.

He said he didn’t know anyone was in the house and that he didn’t check to see if anyone was home, according to the complaint.

He said he wanted the son of the homeowners (the grandson of the couple occupying the home at the time of the fire) “to feel some pain because he said that the grandson got away with everything,” the complaint says.