Middletown man charged after allegedly setting fire while wife, her two daughters inside home

Bond was set at $430,000 for a Middletown man who allegedly started a fire New Year’s Day while his wife and her two children were inside their home on Baltimore Street, according to court documents.

Maston Murphy, 36, was charged with four counts of aggravated arson, first-degree felonies, and two counts of arson, second-degree felonies.

At his arraignment Monday, Middletown Municipal Court Judge James Sherron set the cash, surety or property bond and scheduled Murphy’s preliminary hearing for Jan. 11, records show.

Murphy was arrested by Middletown police on Friday morning, a few hours after the fire, according to records. He remains in the city jail.

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Brittani Murphy, 30, said she was sleeping at 6:30 a.m. New Year’s Day when she heard a loud knock at her front door. A neighbor told her flames were visible. She went to the bathroom and saw flames shooting through the window, she said.

She quickly got her two daughters, 8 and 6, out of the house.

She called the fire “pretty terrifying.”

Murphy said her husband allegedly started her Jeep that was parked under a carport on fire and the flames reached the house. A Jeep she was borrowing from her mother also was ruined in the fire, she said.

Murphy and her daughters are living with family as she tries to raise enough money to find another residence, she said.

A GoFundMe account has been established.

She said most of their possessions, including Christmas presents, were destroyed in the fire.