LOWELL TOWNSHIP, Mich. (WOOD) — The 20-year-old named by prosecutors as a suspect in an arson of a barn that killed 13 therapy horses has a troubled history that includes crime, drug use and setting fires.
Payton Mellema is in the Kent County jail on a $250,000 bond, an unusually high amount for cutting off a GPS tether.
But a judge noted his past record that includes multiple placements in mental health facilities and alleged threats that led to his neighbors taking out a restraining order.
Hours after a horrific fire killed their 13 horses last month, the owners of The Barn for Equine Learning in Lowell Township told 24 Hour News 8 they were pretty sure who set the barn ablaze.
Owner Kathryn Welton said the barn doors had been locked from the inside which prevented them from opening the doors when they saw the fire and listened to the cries of their beloved horses.
“This wasn’t an accident,” Welton said in the hours after the fire. “Even if this is an electrical fire accident, it couldn’t have chained our barn doors. It couldn’t have disrupted all the things around our property. I was not the last person in our barn Saturday night.”
Less than a week after the April 8 fire, Welton had taken out a personal protection order against her neighbor.
In the affidavit requesting the order, Welton claimed Mellema often came onto her property carrying a gun. She said he once brought a dead owl to her house, admitted to cutting her pasture fences and being in the barn at night.
She also suspected that Mellema of tampering with the horses and barn.
Full story from WOOD TV