Inset: Randall Hamblen (Garland County Sheriff”s Office). Background: A section of Tallentwood Place in Garland County, Ark. (Google Maps).
Authorities in Arkansas have accused a man of setting off an explosive device at his ex-wife’s home, following threats to reclaim what they had once “built” together.
Randall Hamblen, aged 50, faces charges of arson, second-degree battery, aggravated assault, and breaching a protective order. This information comes from Garland County jail records accessed by Law&Crime.
Hamblen is currently detained with bail set at $100,000.
According to law enforcement, on May 20, Hamblen drove his gold 2003 Dodge 1500 pickup to a property on Tallentwood Place in Garland County. This residence was previously shared with his wife, from whom he divorced just 12 days earlier.
A man opening the door to the house encountered Hamblen, who reportedly said, “Oh good, you’re here. Get the dogs out of the house,” as detailed in a probable cause affidavit reported by the Hot Springs Sentinel Record.
The other man reportedly went out the home’s back door and walked around to the carport where Hamblen was. That’s when the suspect allegedly “leaned over” and “ignited something” and “a boom went off.”
Authorities did not note what exactly exploded, but the affidavit stated that both men suffered burns to their bodies from the ensuing flames. Responding investigators dug into Hamblen’s past, learning more about his relationship with his ex-wife.
The previous October, Hamblen was reportedly served with a court order banning him from contacting his then-estranged wife as well as from going to the Tallentwood Place house. The woman claimed that Hamblen had been drinking more often and made threats to “burn our house down” if she changed its locks.
On Oct. 19, 2025, he texted her that a divorce would be “mutually assured destruction” and that he was “on the verge of earning the part of me I didn’t want to see” if she didn’t talk to him, the regional newspaper reported.
He was allegedly threatening her for months and vowed to “take what we built” and said they “will burn together.”
It is unclear whether the woman was inside the home at the time of the explosion.