Vehicles, Cruisers Burn in W.Va. State Police Lot
Source Charleston Gazette (West Virginia)
Authorities said three Fayette County men targeted trucks confiscated during a federal auto theft investigation when they set fire to vehicles parked at the West Virginia State Police barracks in Rainelle.
Five vehicles parked on the lot were set ablaze last week, and several of them exploded. No one was injured, but the fire damaged four additional vehicles and the barracks, State Police Sgt. Michael Baylous.
Two vehicles belonged to State Police, including a police cruiser. The remaining three vehicles were collected as part of a federal car theft investigation, according to a criminal complaint filed in Greenbrier County Magistrate Court.
Police arrested three men in connection with the alleged arson Sunday and Monday. Two other people were arrested because they allegedly helped plan the arson.
Baylous said the three men targeted the confiscated trucks and then "took the opportunity to burn two State Police vehicles."
According to the criminal complaint, police interviewed a man named Ray Goff on Sunday about his alleged involvement in the arson.
Goff, whose age and hometown were not immediately known, told police that on Dec. 9, he joined David Clayton White, 32, and Jennifer Lynn White, 32, both of Meadow Bridge. The trio drove around the barracks plotting how they would set the fires, the criminal complaint said.
Several days later, around midnight on Dec. 14, Goff said that David White and two other men - Nicholas Michael White, 22, of Danese, and Joshua Emmanuel Redden, 26, of Meadow Bridge - came to his house and picked him up, police said.
The four men allegedly drove to Rainelle and parked their car at a vantage point above the police barracks.
The men waited about 30 minutes after they saw the last trooper leave the barracks for the night, police said. They then ran to the parking lot with cans of gasoline and broke out the vehicles' windows, police said.
The men poured gasoline inside five cars and set them on fire with matches, the criminal complaint said. They allegedly fled the scene before local firefighters and State Police from Beckley arrived.
Surveillance footage from the State Police barracks corroborated Goff's story, the criminal complaint said.
Redden, David White and Nicholas White were arrested and each charged with eight counts of third-degree arson, one count of second-degree arson, and one count of conspiracy to commit a felony. They were being held Monday in Southern Regional Jail without bail.
Jennifer White and Floyd Junior White, 56, of Danese, were arrested and charged with one count of conspiracy to commit a felony for their involvement in planning the alleged fires. They were being held in Southern Regional Jail in lieu of $250,000 bail each.
David and Jennifer White are married, police said. Relationships among the others arrested were not clear Monday.
Goff has not been arrested. Baylous said the investigation is ongoing and more arrests may follow.
Reach Travis Crum at [email protected] or 304-348-5163.
