Poplar Bluff, MO. – The man who committed arson, theft, assault on a law enforcement officer, and more, has pleaded guilty in a federal court in Cape Girardeau today.
The defendant is Lucas Henson, 37, and he is scheduled to be sentenced on June 28th. He began his crime spree after getting out on bond after being arrested for drug possession and stealing prior.
The timeline goes that Henson stole a van on Oct. 22nd of 2022, abandoned the van, then stole from a camper in Poplar Bluff. He then stole a Dodge truck and went on to steal from a home and a workshop. He then crashed the Dodge in the Mark Twain National Forest and burnt some of the items he’d stolen. After, he started a second fire to evade law enforcement, pointed a crossbow at a U.S. Forest Service Officer, and continued to flee before being caught near the Black River.
Henson admitted to being guilty of his crimes during officer interviews and, by the end, had burned 7.61 acres of land. This crime spree, of course, took place during last year’s drought and forced fire suppression crews to form dozer lines to contain the blaze.
