3 Accused of Robbing, Chaining And Setting Elderly Man On Fire

MILWAUKEE, WI — Two men and one woman have been charged after police say they beat an elderly man, bound him with chains, stole his car and set his apartment on fire.

Ladarius Boyce, Quincy Qualls and Ebone Spencer have all been charged with felony murder. Boyce and Spencer have also been charged with arson and mutilating a corpse.

According to their criminal complaint, just before 2:30 a.m. on July 3, the Milwaukee Fire Department responded to a duplex on the 2100 block of S. 28th St. Firefighters observed flames inside the lower residential unit and forced entry.

As the firefighters made their way through the lower unit, putting out the flames and searching for any victims, they located the body of an elderly male underneath a burning blanket on the floor.

Firefighters reported that the man was dressed in underclothing, and was laying face-down on the floor. His hands were bound behind his back with heavy chains. The man’s ankles were also bound with chains, and the man had been completely immobilized by chains which secured his hands to his ankles, their criminal complaint stated.

The firefighters subsequently stated that the man had been “hogtied.” The firefighters observed that the man appeared to have been severely beaten about the face, as one eye was blacked and his nose was bloody. The man’s hands and feet were severely burned, investigators reported.

The firefighters carried the man out of the house and performed CPR and other emergency measures. The man was unresponsive, and the paramedics discontinued CPR because the victim had died.

A subsequent by police and the Milwaukee County Medical Examiner's office determined that the man died before the fire was set in his residence, investigators reported.

Spencer is being held in the Milwaukee County Jail on a $75,000 cash bond. Boyce is being held on a $100,000 cash bond. Qualls is being held on a $30,000 cash bond.

A short time later, Spencer and Qualls appeared at the scene of the traffic stop in the victim’s missing Ford SUV. Qualls was driving and Spencer was the passenger. Qualls and Spencer were arrested. Boyce was arrested for violating probation according to their criminal complaint.

According to their criminal complaint, Spencer, Qualls and Boyce had all known each other for the past 5-to-7 years. On the morning of July 2, the three were riding in Spencer's black Monte Carlo when a plan was hatched to go the the elderly man's house to take money from him.

Their complaint states that Spencer drove the group to the man's apartment and parked in the alley. The plan was to punch the man into unconsciousness and then to search the residence for money and the title to his car.

According to the criminal complaint, they found the elderly man sleeping in his bedroom. One suspect tied the man's hands behind his back and his ankles together. When he woke up, one of the suspects punched him in the side of the head and in the side of his torse.

According to the complaint, the suspects then searched the house for a PIN number for the victim’s credit card. They were inside the victim’s house for approximately one hour.

They reportedly checked to see if the victim was alive but could not locate a pulse. The victim was cold. They then reportedly found some lighter fluid under the sink and poured it on the blanket which was covering the victim’s body. One of the suspects then found some matches and lit the blanket on fire.

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images via milwaukee county jail