Woman connected to May 2024 East Blancas house explosion arrested again

By LYNETTE SOWELL 

Cove Leader-Press 

Devon Bellows, 42, was back in the Coryell County jail as of Sept. 12 on a $100,000 bond in connection with the May 24 house explosion on East Blancas drive in Copperas Cove. 

Her most recent arrest was for an indictment warrant, for arson that recklessly damages a building and causes bodily injury or death, a first-degree felony. 

The penalties for a first-degree felony in Texas include life imprisonment or a term of 5 to 99 years in prison, and a fine of up to $10,000.

Bellows had first been arrested on June 13 by Copperas Cove police and received a bond of $210,000 for tampering with or fabricating physical evidence with intent to impair.

The arrest complaint filed on June 14 shows an alleged arson-for-hire scheme.

As a result of this scheme, Landon Lower, a Killeen man, was severely injured in the explosion and succumbed to his injuries after being transported to Seton Medical Center in Austin.  Lower had entered the house and been injured when it exploded and fled the scene with a driver who picked him up to transport him to the hospital.

According to the arrest complaint Bellows and Lower had been in communications via phone prior to the explosion. 

Bellows first told police that she had given Lower the key to her home while she was away, but she didn’t know why he would be at the house at that particular time. 

However, her phone record showed that she communicated with Lower multiple times via phone, starting the evening before and the morning of the explosion. 

At 4:08 a.m. the morning of explosion, Devon texted, “Landon please come on. This is our last chance. It will take you like five minutes and then go do whatever you are doing. If you didn’t want to do it, you should have just said so. I don’t understand why you haven’t done it already.” Devon followed this message by saying, “Please tell me you are good and it’s done?”

The explosion had been planned farther back than May 24, with Bell County Jail phone calls between Bellows and a male inmate in which they discussed both Lower and the arson plan on May 12. Bellows told authorities that this inmate was a mutual friend, who told Bellows to give Lower half of the money she would get from the planned job.