LOUISVILLE – Winston County officials still don’t know what caused a 57-year old man douse his elderly mother with gasoline and then set her on fire. Rebecca Robinson-Malin, 75, was pronounced dead just after 3 p.m., June 29, after her son, David Charles Ponder, called authorities to report a fire in their home.
Winston County Sheriff Randy Thomas said when firefighters arrived on the scene on Ellison Ridge Road, they knew they had more than a fire.
“When they got there, the fire was contained to one room in the house, her bedroom,” Thomas said. “And when they opened the door and saw her in the corner, they immediately backed out and called us.”
Thomas said when he arrived, there was significant fire damage to the room, and Robinson-Malin, who suffered from Alzheimer’s, was crouched in a corner of the bedroom where she collapsed. She was pronounced dead at the scene by the Winston County coroner.
Thomas said Ponder became a suspect when investigators examined the scene.
“He said he’d gone to Wal-Mart and when he came back he found her,” Thomas said. “He seemed somewhat distraught. But when we got there and looked at the scene, we knew something wasn’t right. We called the Mississippi Bureau of Investigations to come and give us some help because with a scene like that, I felt it best to have more eyes and more opinions, and they looked at the scene and they agreed with us.”
Thomas said a gas can and a cigarette lighter were found in the bedroom and Ponder and his son, who also lived at the residence, were transported to the police station for questioning.
“He pretty much backed up what his dad said,” Thomas said. “And he was distraught when it was all over with. He was crying and very upset after witnessing what he had witnessed.”
Thomas said Ponder and his son were questioned separately and each gave conflicting statements to police. After several hours of interrogation, Ponder was charged with capital murder.
Ponder was transported to the Winston-Choctaw Regional Correctional Facility and he is being held without bond.
Ponder’s teenage son is now in the custody of his mother.
Thomas also said the small close-knit community where the family lived is still reeling from the murder.
“This is a fairly populated area,” he said. “It’s a mixture of working-class people and it’s a fairly tight-knit community. This is the first call that we’d ever had over there. This family had lived there for several years and according to family members and friends, the mother did have Alzheimer’s, but she was able to drive and she knew what she was able to do.”
Neighbors, however, said Robinson-Malin did express concerns about her son in the past.
“She told me about two years ago, she said, ‘I’m just kind of scared of my son.'” Archie Sullivan, a close friend and neighbor told WCBI. “To me, she wouldn’t harm anybody. Of course her and her son got into arguing, that’s not unusual,” Sullivan added. “[But] she didn’t bother nobody. She was just a sweet person and I don’t think she would hurt nobody. Nobody can understand why he would kill her.”
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