Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Two Charged With M&M Fires

Two Gurdon men have been charged in connection with the M&M Enterprise fire.

According to court records, Jerome Rogers, 30, and Wade Brown, 19, have been charged with commercial burglary, though further charges are pending against the pair.

The fire was reported around 12:45 a.m. on March 3. A deputy with the Clark County Sheriff's Office responded as did Gurdon City Marshal Don Childres.

After being at the scene for about 30 minutes, the officers were told another building was on fire near the old Gurdon Senior Adult Center on Third Street.

Childres and Deputy Travis Vance went there and saw an out building on fire. Firefighters arrived about five minutes later.

When the fire was out, Childres noted the building had been gutted by the flames, while Vance noticed the door had been forced open.

At this point, arson was suspected in both fires, as the two blazes had occurred relatively close together in a short span of time.

Childres was familiar with this pattern, as a series of fires had been set during the summer of 2000 in the same manner.

Childres and Vance began patrolling the area with Vance radioing in about a suspicious vehicle. The driver was identified as Brown.

According to court records, Childres knew Brown ran around with Rogers. He called Vance back, asking if anyone else had been in the car and described Rogers. Vance said the description matched with the exception of hair, as the passenger was wearing a hat at the time.

The officers went to the Brown home, arriving around 2 a.m. Brown opened the door and Childres asked who else was there. Brown responded, "Jerome," according to records.

Childres asked to talk to Rogers, who came to the door cursing at the officers. Childres noticed a cut on Rogers hand along with residue similar to that found at the fire at the senior citizen's building. He also smelled of smoke.

Both suspects were arrested, with Vance taking Rogers and Childres taking Brown to the Gurdon Police Department, before returning to the fire scene at M&M.

Clark County Sheriff Troy Tucker was informed about what had gone on. Tucker found a footprint at the window of the old Gurdon High School gym, where M&M was working out of. It matched to shoes worn by Rogers.

Further investigation turned up a red plastic case with plastic bottles of soft drink near the scene.