"Are you ready to die? Cuz you're going to.''
That's what a woman said her ex-boyfriend, James Al Burr, told her before beating her and attempting to start his apartment on fire with her inside.
Burr, 36, was arraigned Friday in St. Louis County District Court on charges of kidnapping, two counts of felony assault, terroristic threats and fourth-degree arson in connection with the incident Wednesday in an apartment at 405 N. First Ave. W.
According to the criminal complaint, police were called to the apartment on a report of two males engaged in a fistfight with a woman attempting to break up the fight. The 43-year-old woman said she entered her ex-boyfriend's apartment to retrieve her kittens. She said Burr appeared to be very drunk and refused to let her leave.
He threw her to the floor and began punching her in the head, according to the complaint. He began to burn a sweatshirt and told her he was going to burn the apartment down with her inside.
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Each time she tried to escape, he threw her to the floor, the complaint alleges. She was able to get outside the apartment where another man attempted to help her before police arrived. The man told police that Burr continued to attack him and the woman after they got out of the apartment.
An officer found burned paper and a scorch mark on the floor of the apartment approximately a foot long and 6 inches wide. Burr has prior convictions for felony domestic assault in 2007, gross misdemeanor assault in 2006, assault in the fifth degree and interfering with a 911 call in 2002 and a misdemeanor domestic assault in 2002.
Burr was being held in the St. Louis County Jail on $50,000 bail.
