Tommy Lee Harrison Sr., Arson, Indiana 2021

Tommy Lee Harrison Sr.

Connersville, IN – In a shocking display of violence, Tommy Lee Harrison Sr., 34, of Birmingham, Alabama, was sentenced to 57 months in federal prison for setting fire to his father’s home in Connersville, Indiana. The devastating act of arson killed two of the family’s beloved pets, a cat and a dog, and left the family without a home.

According to court documents, on October 28, 2021, Harrison left Birmingham, Alabama, with the intent to travel to Connersville, Indiana, to set fire to the home where Harrison’s father lived with his wife, children, and the family’s pets. During the nearly eight-hour drive, Harrison stopped at a Walmart in Elizabethtown, Kentucky, and purchased a can of black spray paint.

At 1:40 am on October 29, 2021, Harrison arrived at his father’s Connersville home. Video surveillance from the area showed Harrison parking next door to the victim’s house, exiting the vehicle, placing a container on the ground, and driving away. Harrison returned approximately twenty minutes later, and repeatedly drove around the residence for approximately twenty minutes until he backed his car into the yard.

Over the next hour, Harrison used gasoline to light the inside and outside of his family’s home on fire, destroying their master bedroom, rendering the bedrooms of the family’s children unlivable, and killing two of the family’s beloved pets. Harrison also used the spray paint he purchased to deface the property with a racial slur. Harrison departed the scene of the crime and returned to Alabama, where he was later arrested.

‘This defendant’s actions had a devastating impact not only on the immediate victims, but on the community of Connersville as well,’ said Zachary A. Myers, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Indiana. ‘His actions uprooted a family, destroyed their peace of mind, and shook the small town in which his father was a prominent community leader.’

Harrison was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Jane Magnus-Stinson. U.S. Attorney Myers thanked Assistant U.S. Attorney Bradley P. Shepard, who prosecuted this case, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Indiana State Fire Marshal’s Office, who investigated the crime.

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