A preliminary hearing was held last week for a man accused of firing multiple rounds at a home in Bella Vista and setting it on fire while a family was inside. 35-year-old Evan Victor Holliday has been ordered to answer to charges from a pair of incidents. In October of 2023 Holliday allegedly snuck up to the home of Robert Johnson and set fire to the family’s truck and vandalized their van. Then, late on the night of January 11th of last year Johnson was awakened by a perimeter alarm and saw a man walk by his bedroom window. He went outside to confront him and says he found Holliday, who raised his shotgun and pointed it at Johnson, who fled back into his home and took shelter with his family. Holliday then reportedly set fire to the home and Johnson went back out to douse the fire and was met with gunfire. He apparently got back inside just as Holliday opened fire through the front window, sending shotgun pellets through many of the walls and wounding Johnson’s 15-year-old son. There were other children inside as well but they were uninjured. Holliday was later arrested in Red Bluff. He returns to court Friday. Trial dates have not yet been set.
-Steve Gibson