A Michigan man was held for trial in a love-triangle arson that destroyed a Bensalem family’s home

In a tearful voicemail left for his ex-girlfriend in January, Harrison Jones spilled his heart.

“I still love you, I do, and it hurts a lot,” Jones, 21, told the woman, mentioning he had planned to give her a “promise ring” on Valentine’s Day. “I would’ve given up all my other friendships just to be with you.”

Jones, of Rockford, Mich., was apparently willing to do more than that, Bucks County prosecutors said Friday. That included, they said, driving 700 miles to the Bensalem home of her new boyfriend and setting the house on fire at 5 a.m. while he and his family slept inside.

District Judge Michael W. Gallagher held Jones over for trial on six counts of attempted murder, arson, and aggravated animal cruelty for the Feb. 10 blaze, from which the Zalenski family escaped by jumping through windows. Their beloved dogs, Trey and Jett, died in the fire.

Jones’ attorney, Paul Lang, argued during the hearing that there was no evidence his client specifically intended to kill Alex Zalenski, the man Jones’ ex had met online through the video-chat website Omegle.

“There is absolutely nothing to show this was more than an arson, horrible as it was,” Lang said. “Their case goes too far.”

Zalenski and the woman had been dating since November 2024, and she had recruited Jones to drive her from Michigan to Bensalem for a Valentine’s Day visit, prosecutors said.

But Jones made the trip, alone, to Zalenski’s home on Merganser Way three days early.

When Jones arrived, Lang said, he was not aware that there were multiple people in the home.

Deputy District Attorney A.J. Garabedian disputed Lang’s theory of the case, saying it should have been abundantly clear to Jones that the house was full.

Zalenski’s father was asleep in a room on the first floor, the light in his sister’s room was visible from outside, and Jones walked past Zalenski’s mother as he prowled around the home’s second floor, according to testimony Friday.

“[Jones] wanted to eliminate the person who had gotten in the way of his relationship,” Garabedian said. “When you light a fire at a home at 5 a.m., in a residential neighborhood, when everyone is asleep, you’re not doing it so they can get out alive.”

Investigators ruled that the fire had been set on a sofa in the home’s living room, and that it spread quickly to the kitchen before fully engulfing the house.

Oppressive smoke from the fire filled the home, and Zalenski’s family said they struggled to breathe as they fought their way outside. His father later had to be put into a medically induced coma in order to repair the damage to his lungs, according to testimony Friday.

Nearby surveillance cameras recorded Jones fleeing the scene, and his father’s Volkswagen Passat was identified through license-plate readers mounted on roads in the area.

Using data from his cell phone, detectives were able to trace Jones’ route through Southeastern Pennsylvania, and they found footage of him entering a Wawa in Aston hours before the fire was set.

After Jones was taken into custody in Michigan, he admitted having set the fire to his relatives in a prison phone call, according to a recording of the call played in court.

“I was forced to choose, and I had to protect her,” he said.

Jones is to be arraigned in county court on June 27.