TACOMA, Wash. — A man accused of intentionally setting fire to a multimillion-dollar Tacoma home owned by former Washington Huskies and NFL player Desmond Trufant pleaded not guilty to an arson charge.
Sean Ross Demery is accused of setting fire to patio furniture outside Trufant’s home earlier this week.
Investigators say surveillance video from the property captured Demery holding a lighter and a knife before he set the furniture on fire, according to an arrest report.
Investigators later recovered the lighter from the scene, the report said.
The fire broke out early Tuesday morning, with flames and the sound of burning wood waking neighbors.
“You can come up with 9,000 clues and you don’t know which one,” one neighbor, Ivn, said. “But obviously, we all agree that somebody deliberately did this.”
Police said Demery admitted to setting the fire after his arrest. According to the arrest report, he told detectives, “I sure did. I lit that [expletive] on fire.”
Demery told investigators he was only trying to burn the patio furniture to make a point to the Trufant family, according to police.
Demery also claimed he attended high school with one of the Trufant brothers and alleged the family had wronged him. Investigators said they could not substantiate those claims.
During a court appearance, a judge referenced allegations that Demery had knocked on the door of the home before the fire and may have been holding a weapon.
“If the court recalls the probable cause statement correctly, he knocked on the door hoping that someone might be there and may have had a weapon in his hand,” the judge said.
Prosecutors argued Demery should remain in custody, citing the allegations and his criminal history.
“Based on the nature of allegations and threat to public safety indicated thereby, along with Mr. Demery’s criminal history and bench warrant history of six prior cases,” a prosecutor said.
Demery’s defense attorney, Jeff Kent, told the court that his client has a misdemeanor theft conviction from 2025 but had no convictions between 2009 and that case.
A judge set Demery’s bail at $75,000.
His next court appearance is scheduled for Nov. 3.
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