A man accused of intentionally setting fire to a multi-million-dollar Tacoma home, owned by our very own former Washington Huskies and NFL star Desmond Trufant, pleaded not guilty to an arson charge. Sean Ross Demery, the man at the center of this wild story, is accused of torching patio furniture outside Trufant’s place earlier this week.
The Blaze, The Video, and a Wild Confession
This whole mess blew up early Tuesday morning. Neighbors were jolted awake by flames and the unmistakable crackle of burning wood. Talk about a rude awakening! One neighbor, Ivn, summed it up perfectly, saying, “You can come up with 9,000 clues and you don’t know which one. But obviously, we all agree that somebody deliberately did this.” Well, Ivn, it turns out somebody definitely did. Investigators pieced together a wild scene, thanks to surveillance video from the property that allegedly caught Demery holding a lighter and a knife right before the fire started. The cops even recovered that lighter from the scene. But here’s the kicker: after his arrest, police said Demery admitted to the whole thing. According to the arrest report, he looked detectives in the eye and said, “I sure did. I lit that [expletive] on fire.” You can’t make this stuff up, Emerald City.
The “Why” and a Judge’s Warning
So, why would someone allegedly do this? Demery told investigators he was just trying to burn the patio furniture to “make a point” to the Trufant family. He also claimed he went to high school with one of the Trufant brothers and alleged the family had “wronged him.” Naturally, investigators couldn’t back up any of those claims. During a court appearance, things got even more intense. A judge brought up allegations that Demery had actually knocked on the door of the home *before* the fire, possibly 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 stated. Prosecutors were not messing around, arguing Demery needed to stay locked up. They pointed to the serious allegations, the threat to public safety, and his rap sheet, which includes a misdemeanor theft conviction from 2025 and a history of six prior bench warrants. Demery’s defense attorney, Jeff Kent, countered that his client hadn’t had any convictions between 2009 and that 2025 case. In the end, a judge set Demery’s bail at $75,000.
This is a crazy situation for Desmond Trufant and his family. Demery is scheduled for his next court appearance on November 3. You know we’ll be watching closely to see how this unfolds.
This article was created with AI assistance and published under Seattle On Tap’s editorial standards. See our Editorial Policy.
Originally reported by Yahoo Sports.
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