Man charged with arson, theft for fire started in Richfield hotel

A Clearbrook man was charged with arson and theft following a fire at a hotel in November.

Mychal Parnell Holm, 33, was charged via summons with one count of third-degree arson and one count of theft on Wednesday, according to Hennepin County court records.

On Nov. 6, officers from the Richfield Police Department were called to the Four Points Sheraton Hotel on the 7000 block of Lyndale Avenue South in Richfield to help staff remove someone from the hotel, according to a criminal complaint.

Hotel staff told law enforcement on the scene that when Holm checked in on Oct. 12, an in-home health care company paid for his room until Oct. 17, but hotel staff said he had not paid for his room since.

The complaint states that hotel staff approached Holm for payment earlier in the day and he refused to provide a card for payment. Holm’s account at the hotel showed he had charged his room over $5,000 as a tip to a bartender.

Officers went to Holm’s room and immediately smelled burning plastic and saw a thick cloud of smoke covering the room, the complaint stated. Firefighters were called to the scene to put the fire out.

Fire crews informed law enforcement that the fire started because a Wi-Fi router had been placed in the microwave and started, causing a fire in the microwave, which cost $600 to replace.

After obtaining a search warrant, law enforcement searched the room and found items belonging to Holm, according to the complaint.

Law enforcement also contacted the company that paid for Holm’s stay, the complaint added. A list of charges from the hotel showed that Holm accrued over $8,200 in charges from Oct. 11 to Nov. 6., $7,456 of which was spent after Holm was set to check out. The company agreed to pay around $800 of the charges.

Holm is not in custody at the time of this publishing.