Man given probation after burning down murdered man’s home

TUCSON, Ariz. (KOLD News 13) - A judge sentenced a man to probation on Friday, May 6 after he burned down the home of a man who his aunt and uncle killed in 2019.

Brent Nathaniel Mallard was sentenced to seven years of probation and ordered to undergo a drug and alcohol treatment program.

Mallard pleaded guilty to arson in 2019, the year Blane and Susan Barksdale, his aunt and uncle, killed Frank Bligh hid his body and fled. Mallard set fire to Bligh’s house.

Authorities arrested Mallard in Phoenix in April 2019, while his aunt and uncle were apprehended months later in New York after a two-week manhunt.

The Barksdales were both sentenced to prison last month.