WACO (November 23, 2009)—McLennan County sheriff’s deputies arrested Ramonell Stephens, 21, Monday on warrants charging murder and arson as Stephens was released from Parkland Hospital in Dallas, where he was treated for burns he suffered in a fire that was evidently set to cover up the shooting death of his father, veteran Waco firefighter Ramonell James, 55.

Stephens was in the McLennan County Jail Monday afternoon.

His bonds total $2 million.

Firefighters found James’ body after putting out the fire that leveled his home on Nov. 11 in the 200 block of MJR Road in rural McLennan County near Robinson.

An autopsy listed the cause of death as a gunshot wound to the head.

His death was ruled a homicide.

Stephens, 21, was taken to Parkland after Texas Department of Public Safety Trooper Chad Buenger who was responding to the fire, found a burned man identified as Stephens after stopping to check out a car that was parked sideways in the middle of the road near the intersection of South 3rd Street and Loop 340.

According to the affidavit submitted for the arrest, warrant, Stephens smelled strongly of accelerant.

He told a deputy sheriff, “I had to do it,” the affidavit said, and when asked what he meant, he replied, “I shot him.”

A handgun was recovered from Stephens’ car and a neighbor identified him as the man he saw leaving James’ house shortly after the explosion, the affidavit said.

Stephens later told investigators that he shot his father and then poured gasoline on the body, bed and in the house and then set the structure on fire.

In the days before the fire, the affidavit says Stephens “purchased a gas can gas, black work gloves, (and) Kingsford lighter fluid at various stores in McLennan County.”

He also purchased a handgun on Nov. 10 at a local pawnshop, the affidavit said.