House fire leads to attempted murder charge

   Tinnin

A woman who is identified in court documents as homeless was arrested Tuesday, Aug. 13, in Alpena and is being held on charges including attempted capital murder in connection with a July 28 house fire in Berryville.

Jennifer Rose Tinnin, 29, faces felony charges of attempted capital murder, arson, first-degree criminal mischief, second-degree battery and terroristic threatening. Carroll County Circuit Judge Dale Ramsey set bond for Tinnin at $500,000 during her first judicial appearance on Wednesday, Aug. 14. Ramsey ordered Tinnin to appear in Carroll County Circuit Court at 9 a.m. Monday, Sept. 9, in Berryville.

The charges against Tinnin stem from two incidents that occurred in Berryville, the first on June 12 and the second on July 28.

In the most recent incident, Tinnin is accused of intentionally lighting a “big box” of fireworks in a bedroom of a house in the 200 block of Pritchard Street. Before allegedly lighting the fireworks, Tinnin was heard by a witness telling someone over the telephone that: “You’re not going to want to miss this,” according to a probable- cause affidavit written by Lt. Daniel Crawford of the Berryville Police Department.

A Berryville police officer who responded to the incident saw a man and woman on the front porch of the residence. The woman was holding the man by his arm and helping him out of the residence. The officer helped the man, later identified as a tenant at the residence, from the front porch of the house to a walker in the front yard. The officer heard multiple explosions coming from inside the residence, the affidavit says.

The Berryville Fire Department responded and put the fire out, but it caused severe damage to the house. Crawford recovered the remains of fireworks from a bedroom of the house, the affidavit says.

During a recorded telephone conversation between Tinnin and Dillion Carpenter, an inmate at the county jail, Crawford’s affidavit says, Tinnin and Carpenter “laugh every time they talk about” the fire. Crawford also writes that Tinnin was aware that because of the tenant’s disability, he would not be able to get out of the residence on his own.

“Upon looking at the severity of the burn damage inside the residence it is apparent that (the victim) would have died inside the house if he had not received help when he did,” the affidavit says.

In the June 12 incident, Tinnin and Carpenter are accused of beating a man with baseball bats at the same residence on Pritchard Street where the fire later took place. Berryville police officer Craig Hicks arrested Carpenter at the house but a female, believed to be Tinnin, fled the scene.