Brett Kirkland Burks

An Athens man is facing a felony arson charge after agreeing to start a fire in the Limestone County Jail in exchange for commissary items, an official said.

Brett Kirkland Burks, 24, was in a cell block with other inmates when he agreed to the exchange, said Tammy Waddell, Limestone County Sheriff’s detention operations lieutenant. Waddell said Burks used an electrical outlet and some small pieces of wire or a paper clip to catch toilet paper on fire, then carried the lighted toilet paper back to his cell.

“He tells me they were trying to get soot for tattooing,” Waddell said.

She said Burks also told her that he was not the one giving the tattoo. Instead, “he had been given commissary items to do it.”

“He picked up a Class A felony for some commissary items,” Waddell said.

Burks was arrested May 15 on charges of second-degree burglary, first-degree theft, first-degree criminal mischief and obliteration of crops after he and an accomplice allegedly took a Mercedes C250 for a joyride through a cornfield and got it stuck in the mud. He now has an additional charge of first-degree arson for the jail fire.