Charges: Minneapolis woman intentionally set apartment fire that killed two last summer

An argument over personal belongings led a Minneapolis woman to start a fire in an apartment hallway last summer that eventually engulfed the building and left two people dead, according to charges filed Monday in Hennepin County District Court.

Deonna Marie Presbury, 35, is charged with two counts of second-degree murder and three counts of first-degree arson for the fire she is accused of setting in a four-story apartment building in the 1500 block of 11th Avenue S. in downtown Minneapolis on Aug. 13, 2024.

The Hennepin County Medical Examiner identified the two victims as Debbie Leshelle Allen, 59, and Kerry Sims, 66, and determined both died from inhaling smoke. After two arson investigations deemed the fire intentionally set, the Medical Examiner ruled homicide as the cause of their deaths. Two other victims were hospitalized for their injuries, including severe burns, and had to be rescued by ladder because the building's roof collapsed. Twenty-seven people were displaced from the 22-unit building by the blaze.

The man arguing with Presbury later told her the fire killed two people and she was likely responsible. Presbury, who did not live in the building, allegedly responded, "Love will [expletive] you up anytime."

Court documents show that Presbury was evicted from a Minneapolis apartment in 2021 over an intentionally set fire.

According to the charges:

Presbury was with her daughter in the hallway arguing with a resident who lived in a second floor apartment, demanding the return of personal items that Presbury said belonged to her — including bags of clothes, a green bike and pink in-line skates.

The man she was arguing with told police he returned those items to Presbury moments before the fire. Several witnesses, including another resident of the apartment, told police they heard a female yell expletives about killing the man and burning the building to the ground before smelling smoke.

"You got me messed up," Presbury allegedly said before starting the fire.

Arson investigators identified two points of origin for the fire: One near the rear stairway of the second floor and another near a pair of pink in-line skates on the ground outside the apartment. The fire by the second-floor stairway was near a carpeted area and rapidly grew, extending upward, and quickly damaged the fourth floor and roof. Allen and Sims, the two homicide victims, lived together on the fourth floor.

The investigation determined the cause of the fire to be "incendiary and intentionally set with both points of origin set independently." An investigation by the building's insurer also ruled arson as the cause.

Motion-activated security cameras showed Presbury and her daughter leaving the front door area of the apartment, carrying bags of clothes. The bike and in-line skates were left behind. The daughter eventually left the building by the front door without her mother. Presbury appeared shortly after with a lit cigarette and a blue rubber glove on her right hand. Calls to 911 about the smoke and fire were reported moments later.

The investigation uncovered that Presbury was a suspect in other intentional fires involving different property owned by the man she was arguing with who lived in the second-floor apartment. Presbury was also known to carry a torch lighter and arson investigators believe that device could have started the fire based on "the two locations of ignition, the amount of combustible fuel, structural thermodynamics of the building and the burn patterns investigators later observed."

After her arrest, Presbury denied setting the fire. She told police she was at her sister's house that night and hadn't been in the building since July. When she was shown photos of herself and her daughter exiting the building, Presbury admitted she was there that night but denied setting the fire and denied talking to the man who lived in the second-floor apartment about the fire.

Presbury is being held in the Hennepin County Jail on $1 million bail and is set to make a first court appearance Tuesday. No attorney is listed for her.

Her eviction for setting a fire in her apartment in 2021 was filed on behalf of Project for Pride in Living, a nonprofit that offers affordable housing to lower-income individuals and families. The eviction filing noted that Presbury and her guests started a fire in her apartment in south Minneapolis that "caused significant damage to the premises."