The criminal cases against David L. Jackson are moving forward in the legal system. He's charged with burglarizing and torching a home, Oct. 16, 2006, in Centreville's Newgate community.
Fairfax County Fire and Rescue Department officials said the blaze caused $40,000 damage. The home was being renovated, so no one was living there at the time. But police say an alert resident called them when he saw someone lurking inside it, just before the fire broke out.
THE INCIDENT occurred around 10:30 p.m. in the 14400 block of Four Chimney Drive. Firefighters from West Centreville's Station 38 arrived to find smoke showing from the second floor of the three-level townhouse.
When police got there, the home was on fire. Police quickly broadcast a lookout for a man on a bicycle, and a description of his clothing was given. Another officer then noticed a man matching that description riding a bicycle on Awbrey Patent Drive.
Police took the man — later identified as Jackson, 44, formerly of Centreville, but with no fixed address when he was arrested — to the Sully District Police Station for questioning. And early on Oct. 17, they charged him with arson, burglary, possession of stolen property and failure to update the sex-offender registry.
In November 1986, when Jackson lived in Clifton, he was convicted in Circuit Court of aggravated sexual assault. He was sentenced to five years in prison and —following a series of parole violations stemming from that conviction — he was ordered to register as a sex offender.
After his first court date pertaining to the arson offense was continued, Jackson appeared last Wednesday, March 14, in General District Court before Judge Donald McDonough. At that time, the stolen-property and sex-offender-registry charges were dropped. McDonough then certified the arson and burglary charges to the grand jury for possible indictment.
<tgl> — Bonnie Hobbs