OAK HILL, W.Va. — Fayette County deputies arrested two suspects charged with arson and murder in a fatal March 2014 fire that killed two women just outside of the Oak Hill city limits.
William Eugene Dixon, Sr., 55, Oak Hill, turned himself in to the Sheriff’s Office Monday afternoon after deputies obtained a warrant for his arrest.
During his arraignment, Dixon’s attorney filed an emergency motion with the Circuit Court of Fayette County for a hearing to establish bond due to Dixon’s various health issues.
Bond was established in the amount of $75,000 and Dixon will be required to GPS Home Confinement monitoring as a condition of his bond.
Investigators captured the second suspect, Jonathan Jones, 28, also of Oak Hill, later Monday evening.
Jonathan Jones, 28, Oak Hill is wanted on charges of murder for his involvement in a 2014 fatal fire just outside of Oak Hill.
During the course of the investigation, fire officials were able to rule out all possible accidental causes of the fire and determined it had been intentionally started.
“If you are engaged in the commission of certain felony crimes, including arson, and someone dies as a result of your criminal conduct, then it is considered to be murder,” Fayette County Prosecuting Attorney Larry Harrah said in a prepared statement. “It is not necessary for a suspect to have intentionally killed someone. If an individual dies as a result of your commission of certain felony crimes, whether you intended for them to die or not, then you are legally responsible for his or her death. In this case two individuals- Cheryl Renee Ward and Jamie Lynn Castillo- died as a direct result of the alleged criminal conduct of William Eugene Dixon, Sr. and Jonathan Lee Jones.”
“My office has been working with the Sheriff’s Office Detective Bureau, the Office of the West Virginia State Fire Marshal and the West Virginia Office of the Chief Medical Examiner since the early stages of this investigation. We have carefully reviewed the evidence in this case and believe that this evidence fully supports the filing of these criminal charges. No crime is more serious than the unlawful taking of another human life, and I intend to prosecute this case aggressively.”
The fire began in the early hours of Sunday, March 23, 2014 on Gatewood Road outside of Oak Hill’s city limits. During the course of fighting the fire, two women were rescued, but suffered extensive burn injuries.
The two victims were identified as Cheryl Renee Ward, 28, of Oak Hill and Jamie Lynn Castillo, 40, also of Oak Hill. Ward died in the burn unit of Cabell Huntington Hospital on March 24, 2014.
Castillo passed away on July 6, 2014 as a result of burns sustained in the fire.
Sheriff Kessler stated, “Arson is not an easy crime to investigate, since a great deal of your physical evidence is often destroyed in the fire. Our detectives and investigators from the West Virginia Office of the State Fire Marshall have worked very diligently to gather the information and evidence necessary to support the filing of criminal charges in connection with this case.”