A Florida man was arrested Wednesday for allegedly brutally burning a prominent Texas lawyer to death in 2016 — a case that became one of the Lone Star State’s highest-profile unsolved mysteries.
Steven Benton Aubrey, 61, beat attorney Ira Tobolowsky, 68, then doused him with gasoline and lit him on fire because he represented his mother in a bitter court case against him, cops charged.
Authorities said the longtime suspect was arrested for the crime which shook Dallas and will be extradited to Texas to face a capital murder charge.
Tobolowsky was representing Aubrey’s mother in an ugly dispute with her son over her late husband’s estate.
Aubrey, who had a history of erratic behavior, had been cut out of a will and was protesting the case in court.
The accused killer grew enraged after being severed from his father’s wealth and warned his mother that he would seek revenge if she didn’t change the document.
Aubrey’s mother feared her son’s wrath and suspected him of infesting her home with rats at one point, according to D Magazine.
“You have 3 days to change your mind and apologize to me or else,” he wrote in an 2012 email, according to the outlet. “Or else I will make it my mission to make the rest of your life miserable, as you deserve.”
Aubrey soon directed his rage at Tobolowsky after he began representing his mother in the estate battle.
The lawyer at one point filed a defamation suit against Aubrey and feared for his safety prior to the grisly slaying.
Investigators believed that someone had drilled a hole in a fence at Tobolowsky’s home to spy on his movements before the murder.
Tobolowsky’s brother, Stephen Tobolowsky, is a veteran actor who appeared in hits including Groundhog Day and Basic Instinct.
The late attorney’s son, Michael, has pressed for Aubrey’s arrest for years and told CBS Thursday that he was relieved by the new charges.
He called it “amazing news we have waited for, for a long time.”
Aubrey has publicly denied any role in the slaying in the past.
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