Phoenix Man Suffers Burns While Setting Sex Offender Brother's House on Fire

MCSO

Rodger Moffett told police he burned his own house down.

​A pair of Phoenix brothers are feelin' the heat after the two burned a house owned by one of the men to the ground.

Rodger Moffett, a convicted sex offender who's been off the state's radar for nearly 15 years, faces arson charges similar to those his brother, Robert Moffett, will likely face -- as soon as he's released from the Maricopa County Burn Center.

After trying to pin it on unknown assailants who fled into the desert, the Moffett brothers admitted to Maricopa County sheriff's deputies that they burned down a house owned by Rodger Moffett at 40224 West Old Indian School Road in Tonopah on Monday night.

Robert Moffett managed to set himself on fire in the process.

MCSO deputies responded to the blaze about 7 p.m. Monday. The house, court records obtained by New Times state, was "fully engulfed in flames."

While at the scene, deputies spoke with Rodger Moffett. He told the cops he owned the house but was getting ready to move to Mexico and was living with his brother at an apartment in Phoenix.

He told police he was at the house that night because he believed he left his wallet when he was there earlier in the day moving things with his brother.

Moffett told the cops he saw two men near the house earlier in the day, which he found suspicion because he'd had prior problems with copper thieves stealing wire from the house. The men, Moffett says later, told him they were just in the area hunting.

That night, when the brother's were at the house to "look for [Rodger Moffett's] wallet." Moffett told deputies his brother had gone inside to look for the wallet and came running out shortly after saying he'd been burned and the house was on fire. He also said he saw two men running off into the desert carrying what appeared to be a gas can.

Then Moffett told police that it wasn't his brother who saw the two men running off with the gas can, it was him.

At the end of the day, it didn't matter which brother claimed to see the two men because the entire story was bullshit.

Deputies became suspicious with some inconsistencies in Moffett's story, at which point he copped to the whole thing.

He told police he and his brother had gone to the house that night with the intention of burning it down.

When police interviewed Robert Moffett at the burn center, deputies noticed his clothing -- aside from being burned -- smelled like gasoline.

He, too, admitted to setting the blaze -- although, neither brother told deputies why.

But the plot thickens...

Rodger Moffett is a sex offender who hasn't registered with the state since 1996.

So, in addition to the one count of felony arson, with which Rodger Moffett's been charged, he's also been charged with failure to register as a sex offender.

Robert Moffett has not yet been charged.