A 39-year-old Sampson County man is in jail tonight charged with destroying multiple abandoned structures during what appeared to be a burning spree in late April.
Henry Martin Jackson, of 2684 High House Road, Clinton has been charged with four counts of burning of certain building, all felonies.
His arrest Tuesday morning comes on the heels of a joint investigation between the Sampson County Sheriff’s Office and the local Fire Marshal’s Office into multiple structure fires across the county that were all believed to have been intentionally set.
The fires, Sampson Chief Deputy Marcus Smith said, were reported within a four-hour period on April 24. The structures were located at 3271 Roanoke Road (reported at 1:02 a.m.); near 9485 North US 421 Hwy. (2:58 a.m.), 1252 Mt. Elam Church Road (4 a.m.) and 2787 High House Road (4:59 a.m.).
Each of the structures were abandoned, and each, Smith said, were totally destroyed by the fires.
“Through the use of advanced digital forensics and other data analysis, investigators developed information that Jackson was present in the immediate vicinity of three fire locations shortly before they were reported to emergency services,” Smith noted.
Around 9:30 a.m. Tuesday, Sampson investigators executed a search warrant at Jackson’s home. During that search, Smith said, deputies seized several items as evidence, and Jackson was taken into custody without incident.
He is currently being held at the Sampson Detention Center under a $200,000 bond.