JC man charged in St. Louis arson case

A Jefferson City man out on bail for allegedly firing shots into a Jefferson City home last month has been charged in St. Louis with setting fire to a car.

Dean McBaine, 30, is charged with torching a woman’s car Sept. 2 outside the home where she and her teenage son were sleeping.

McBaine was charged this week with first-degree arson, child endangerment, unlawful possession of an explosive and first-degree property damage.

According to court reports, McBaine detonated an explosive under the woman’s car. A neighbor across the street provided police with surveillance video that shows a man approach the woman’s driveway, toss an object under her car and run off moments before an explosion set the car ablaze.

McBaine was released on bail Aug. 21 in Cole County. He was charged four days earlier for allegedly storming into a woman’s Jefferson City home in an intoxicated state. He allegedly threw a television on top of her 2-year-old child in a “violent rage,” according to court documents. Authorities said McBaine ran out of the house and fired three gunshots into the home after a friend of the woman intervened.

The woman told police McBaine’s shots went into the room of her 13-year-old stepson, who was asleep at the time. She then left the area with her children. Police reported they found four bullet holes in the ceiling of the teen’s bedroom and one in the wall above his bed.

Bail for McBaine in the St. Louis case was set at $750,000 cash only, according to court records.