AUSTELL, Ga. — A suspect now charged with murder for allegedly setting a fire that left a mother and grandmother dead in Austell earlier this month had a recent violent history at the home, prior arrest warrants show.
Robert Smith, 30, is accused of setting a car on fire outside the home on March 12. The fire spread to the home and killed 52-year-old Andrea Nall and 74-year-old Michele LaCroix, as well as six animals according to the warrants.
Andrea's daughter, Elizabeth Nall, told 11Alive this week their family is devastated. Her son Tyler Nall described Andrea as an "amazing woman" and a "pillar of her community" who was "called not only mom by us but many, many other people."
Arrest warrants show that Smith had an arrest for felony aggravated battery related to a violent incident at the home just a month before the fire.
The warrant states Smith's girlfriend, a member of the family, woke up after a night out with him bleeding and with her left eye swollen shut. The warrant says she remembered they had gotten to a dispute but did not remember anything afterward, and in a phone call Smith initially claimed not to remember anything.
He did, however, allegedly tell her over the phone: "Oh s***, I f***** up."
When police spoke to him, he allegedly gave new details.
"He claimed that he remembered waking up to the Victim shaking him to have him come to bed, and he believed that he mistook this for being attacked and started fighting; though he claimed he 'blacked out' during the incident and did not remember the physical details of the altercation," the warrant states.
Police noted that more than 24 hours after the incident, the girlfriend's eye was still swollen shut and she also had "abrasions and bruises on her face and chest."
Another warrant alleges he violently assaulted the girlfriend again just a couple weeks later.
At a different location in Cobb County, Smith was accused of aggravated assault by strangling the girlfriend "to the point she nearly lost consciousness" as well as hitting her in the face, "causing extensive contusions and the tissue around her eye to swell to the point she lost vision."
Roughly another two weeks later, Smith is alleged to have set the fire to a car that spread to the home, killing LaCroix and Nall.
"Accused knew, or should have known, the fire would spread to the occupied dwelling, which resulted in the death of two persons and six animals," the warrant in that case states.
"This is the hardest thing we’ll ever have to go through in life," Elizabeth Nall said of the loss earlier this week.
Tyler Nall said his mom and grandmother "both had an open arm and an open door for anybody who ever needed it."
"Their love and compassion knew no bounds, sometimes to a fault," he said.
Smith's charges, according to jail records, include two counts of murder, three counts of arson and a count of aggravated cruelty to animals.