Ex-convict sent to prison for setting fires in Stillwater

  STILLWATER — An ex-convict, who admitted setting fire on two different occasions to the uninhabited leasing office of a Stillwater apartment complex that his girlfriend had reportedly been told to vacate, has been given a three-year prison term for two counts of second-degree arson.

   Trey Devon Christopher, 33, of Stillwater, was sentenced in accordance with a plea agreement with the prosecution that was approved on June 26 by District Judge Jason Reese, who also ordered him to pay $11,383 in restitution, court records show.

   Christopher, who had been released from prison only three months earlier, was arrested on July 1, 2025, court records show.

   Stillwater Police Sgt. Kurt Merrill wrote in an affidavit, “The apartment manager showed me a video from inside the burned door,” which was set fire on June 28, 2025.

   “The suspect appears to pour something at the base of the door moments before there is a flash followed by flames. The suspect remains at the door for several seconds and appears to add more fuel to the fire causing additional flames to erupt. The suspect flees from the area on foot.”

   At about 3:40 am that day, Christopher, who was identified by surveillance cameras, had entered a convenience store while carrying a cooking oil bottle with a white and blue label, the affidavit said. Christopher contacted a clerk to purchase gasoline, who refused to sell it to him because he did not have an appropriate container, the affidavit said.

   Ten minutes later, Christopher arrived at another convenience store where he used a debit card to purchase gasoline after the pump was deactivated, the affidavit said. Christopher left the store on a bicycle at about 4 am, the affidavit said. At 4:30 am, police were sent for a structure fire at the leasing office, the affidavit said.

   Christopher is in an intimate relationship with a woman, who lives at the apartment complex but “was recently served a nonrenewal of her lease, meaning she will need to vacate her apartment by the end of July,” of 2025, the affidavit said.

   On July 1, 2025, Stillwater Fire Department Deputy Fire Marshall Dustan Portman told the sergeant that there was a second fire at the same leasing office, another affidavit said.

   “Video from the scene provided by the property manager showed a male walk from the north to the area of the fire. Within a few seconds of the suspect leaving the south view of the camera there is a flash of light consistent with a fire being set. A plastic syrup bottle containing a petroleum liquid similar to gasoline was found in the bush immediately adjacent to the sidewalk where the fire initiated.

   “Trey Christopher was contacted and subsequently arrested related to a similar arson that occurred approximately 72 hours prior to this incident,” the affidavit said.

   According to court records and the state Department of Corrections, Christopher had been released from prison on March 21, 2025, after serving seven months of a one-year sentence followed by six years of probation for car theft in Payne County in 2024.

  Christopher had also been convicted of car theft, first-degree burglary, and eluding a police officer in Logan County in 2011 for which he originally received probation that was changed in 2017 to three concurrent five-year prison terms of which he served about three years and eight months. Christopher had also been given five years of probation in Logan County in 2012 for domestic abuse.

   Christopher had also been convicted of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon and domestic abuse in the presence of a child in Garfield County in 2016 for which he was given two concurrent prison terms of 10 years and five years but only served about three years and three months.