Exclusive: Mom of San Marcos arson suspect: Cops have wrong guy. Witness says son set fire

The mother of the Austin man charged in connection with a 2018 deadly apartment fire in San Marcos says her son had never been in trouble and that he told her after the blaze that he tried to help tenants escape the burning building.

In an exclusive interview with the American-Statesman, Victoria Ferguson said that authorities have the wrong guy and that her son, Jacobe Ferguson, was wrongfully arrested.

“He said he was trying to help people get out of the way of the fire and telling them to come to his apartment,” the mother said Thursday.

Jacobe Ferguson, 30, was arrested Wednesday in South Austin after local and federal authorities say they cracked the case into the 5-year-old arson fire at the Iconic Village apartments near Texas State University. The July 2018 blaze left five people dead and many others injured.

Ferguson, who was a tenant of the apartment complex at the time of the fire, is being held in the Hays County jail on $250,000 bail that his mom says the family cannot afford. He stands charged with arson causing bodily injury or death, a first-degree felony.

More: San Marcos apartment fire suspect arrest affidavit outlines motive, attempt at cover-up

His roommate, Payton Weigel, said he and Ferguson were on their way to work Wednesday morning when they stopped at a convenience store near their apartment.

“I was grabbing my stuff and, by the time I got back out, five or six unmarked police cars had pulled up and took him,” he told the Statesman.

The deadly mystery got a fresh look last fall when the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; San Marcos police; and Texas Rangers joined the San Marcos Fire Department in investigating the case. In restarting the investigation, authorities said they circled back to witnesses whom investigators had spoken with after the fire and, this time, got a clearer understanding about what happened.

An arrest affidavit released Thursday says a witness, Weldon Moore, met with authorities in late June and told them that on the day after the fire he spoke with Ferguson. Moore, the affidavit notes, said Ferguson had discussed setting the fire and confided in him that he was angry about a broken relationship and feeling overwhelmed at work.

Ferguson “didn’t tell me he did it, he told me why he did it,” Moore told investigators, according to the affidavit.

Ferguson, according to the affidavit, was intoxicated on the night of the fire and told Moore that the blaze might have originated on a mattress that a tenant had set out for Ferguson to remove. Authorities say they later confirmed the fire began on the mattress.

Moore, according to the affidavit, laid out a potential motive for the arson. He said that Ferguson was upset with having the responsibility of getting rid of the mattress and because a relationship he had with a tenant had ended. That tenant, a woman who had gone on a date with Ferguson, sustained serious injuries in the fire, authorities said.

Victoria Ferguson, of Tyler, said her son is normally calm and the allegations against him are out of character.

“Why would he be so mad about a mattress?” she asked. Victoria Ferguson had not yet read the arrest affidavit at the time she spoke with the Statesman. She said her son graduated from Texas State with two degrees and had within the past year moved to Austin from San Marcos for a job.

More: 'Never given up on this case': Arrest made in connection to San Marcos' deadliest fire

Cameron Mink, a longtime friend of Jacobe Ferguson’s, said he was shocked when he heard about the arrest.

“He had told me about the fire when it first happened, and he said he was helping people get out of the building,” Mink said. “Never in a million years would I believe he did something like this, and I don’t believe he did it. I think they’re just trying to find someone to put the blame on.”

Weigel, the roommate, said though Ferguson has been diagnosed with bipolar disorder, he has never seen him act aggressively or violently. Ferguson's mom confirmed the medical diagnosis.

"He was good on taking medication," Weigel said. "He never strayed away from it or anything like that."

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Mother of suspect in deadly Iconic Village fire says he's innocent