Clara City teenager faces arson charges in two Sept. 5 fires

MONTEVIDEO - A 18-year-old Clara City man faces arson charges for allegedly setting two separate fires this September in Raymond and Priam.
Tyler James Moffenbier made an appearance Tuesday in Chippewa County District Court on a felony charge of first-degree arson and a misdemeanor charge of trespassing stemming from a Sept. 5 fire at a rural Raymond farm site.  
Moffenbier also faces a felony charge of second-degree arson in Kandiyohi County District Court stemming from a fire reported the same day in Priam.
Moffenbier was 17 at the time and is charged as a juvenile. Felony matters against 16- and 17-year-olds are public record.
According to the criminal complaint on the charges, another person was potentially tied to the arson fires, but a search of the public database produced no court records for the second person.
Law enforcement responded to the first fire Sept. 5 at a vacant farm site in the 15000 block of Fifth Street Southeast in Raymond.
Firefighters tried to extinguish the fire, which was consuming a granary on the property near an abandoned house. The grainary later collapsed to the ground, destroyed in the blaze.
A Chippewa County sheriff’s deputy documented the scene of the fire. He was unable to determine the cause of the fire, but believed that someone might have poured accelerant on the structure, the complaint states.
While speaking with the property owner, the deputy was informed of another fire in progress at Minnesota Valley Alfalfa in Priam.
Finding the timing and proximity of the fires suspicious, the deputy believed it was possible that both fires were related, according to the complaint.
The next day, a Clara City police officer received information that Moffenbier was bragging to his friends on Sept. 5 that it would be fun to “get some beer and then set something on fire tonight.”
Moffenbier was interviewed by the deputy and denied being involved. Moffenbier identified another male as the one who started the fire.
The deputy then met with the other male and his parents. This individual allegedly said both he and Moffenbier had played in a role in starting the fires in Raymond and Priam.