A man already jailed on a murder charge in connection with the deadly Cypresswood Apartments fire in Spring is now facing two new arson charges tied to the severe injuries suffered by a father and his 3-year-old son. Matthew Atwater has been held in the Harris County Jail since the July blaze that killed his brother and left several others hurt, and prosecutors have now added charges reflecting the harm done to neighbors Eian Spayer and his son Atlas.
The new indictments allege arson connected to the serious injuries suffered by Atlas and his father, and both new charges include an allegation that Atwater used or exhibited a firearm during the crime, according to Click2Houston. Reporter Corley Peel obtained surveillance video showing Atwater in the area shortly before the building caught fire, the outlet reported. Atwater is accused of setting fire to the eight-unit building at 4607 Cypresswood Drive in the early morning hours of July 20, 2026, a blaze that destroyed the structure and displaced roughly 25 residents, as FOX 26 Houston reported at the time.
According to prosecutors, Atwater initially told investigators he had been cooking chicken, became upset, and threw a gas can against a wall. He later told investigators he poured kerosene on the floor and furniture before igniting the fire with a lighter, prosecutors said, per the same Click2Houston account.
A Father's Desperate Escape
Three-year-old Atlas suffered burn injuries over 95% of his body after his father, Eian Spayer, carried him through a wall of fire to escape their second-story unit, leaving both father and son critically injured, Fox 26 Houston reported. Atlas was airlifted to Shriners Children's Texas in Galveston, an institutional pediatric burn center that treats children regardless of a family's ability to pay, according to the Houston Chronicle. The boy remains hospitalized at Shriners, where he has a breathing tube and may face additional surgeries, per his family's GoFundMe page.
The overnight emergency response was led by the Klein Fire Department, whose crews treated five firefighters at the scene for smoke inhalation, dehydration, and exhaustion alongside seven residents, while six other victims were hospitalized across four area hospitals, the Houston Chronicle reported.
Prior Warnings and a Pending Case Elsewhere
Atwater's brother died in the fire, and prosecutors charged Atwater with murder under Texas's felony murder doctrine, which allows a murder conviction when a death results from an inherently dangerous felony like arson, without requiring proof of intent to kill, according to Texas Penal Code § 19.02(b)(3). Separately, arson itself is a second-degree felony under Texas law but is enhanced to a first-degree felony, punishable by 5 to 99 years or life in prison, when it involves a habitation or results in serious bodily injury or death, per Texas Penal Code § 28.02.
Law enforcement officers had received multiple prior emergency calls from Atwater's family members regarding his mental health, during which he was described as schizophrenic, ABC13 Houston reported. Neighbors at Cypresswood Apartments told Click2Houston that Atwater had been observed starting a small grass fire on the complex grounds several months before the fatal blaze. And according to KHOU, citing Crime Stoppers of Houston, Atwater was out on bond from Jasper County at the time of the fire, facing five criminal charges including aggravated assault on a police officer following a four-county pursuit.
Competency Evaluation and Jail Status
After his arrest, Atwater missed his initial probable cause hearing after a judge placed him on suicide watch and ordered him transferred to the Harris County Jail Mental Health Unit, KHOU reported. According to court records, Atwater underwent a mental competency evaluation on September 26, and he remains held in the Harris County Jail on a $2.5 million bond. The new arson charges, with their firearm enhancements, add significant additional exposure to a case that already carries the possibility of a life sentence under the existing murder charge. As with any pending criminal case, the allegations against Atwater remain unproven in court.
