Convicted arsonist causing trouble in Mason City and Newton

MASON CITY – A pizza man and convicted arsonist who is bouncing between Mason City and Newton, Iowa, has recently been charged with crimes in both towns.

Jerad Michael McGinley, age 31, claims via social media to have moved to Mason City on January 18, 2015 with a woman from Newton. He claims he then got a job at Little Caesar’s Pizza in March of that year. The pair claims to have been married in September.

However, Mason City police responded to a domestic call on December 26, 2015. As a result, McGinley was charged with domestic abuse causing injury. He pleaded guilty on January 25 and was sent to jail for 2 days and ordered to pay $661.75 in fines and court fees. A no-contact order was set to protect his victim; he was accused of violating that order on December 28 but the charge was thrown out.

Once again, however, McGinley was accused of violating the no contact order on January 15 after Mason City police reported an incident, and he faces a new charge. He has continued to post messages on his wife’s social media page since then, saying “even with all the hate in the end you were still the one that drove me to get up” and “where ever u land hope it is half as nice as where i landed after u” as well as a video on February 1 titled “Five Finger Death Punch – The Bleeding”.

McGinley was booked into the Cerro Gordo jail on February 18 after he was transferred from the Jasper county jail in Newton. He’s being held on $300.00 bond and awaits a hearing on February 25.

Newton, Iowa police charged McGinley on January 9 of this year with theft in the third degree. He pleaded guilty a few days later and was given a suspended 2-year prison sentence, a suspended $625.00 fine along with 2 years of probation. Soon thereafter, he was charged with violating that probation and on February 17 he was sentenced to 12 days in jail.

McGinley is a convicted arsonist after a crime he committed in Newton back on June 21, 2012.  According to the Newton Daily News, at approximately 4:30 AM that morning, he “lit an article of clothing belonging to his ex-girlfriend on fire … there were six people inside the multi-apartment house when the fire began.”