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Jason Doyle
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Kelly Doyle
Probe fans flames of arson suspicion
Former Caldwell County firefighter, wife indicted
On the surface it did seem that fortune wasn’t smiling on Caldwell County resident Jason Doyle in late 2008 and early 2009; in fact, he reportedly quipped to a neighbor that he’d “had a run of bad luck because I cut off someone in traffic.”
But an investigator with the State Fire Marshal’s Office, and later the Caldwell County Grand Jury, didn’t buy that. Now, the 37-year-old former firefighter and his wife are both indicted for child endangerment and first-degree arson.
The charges came about after an insurance company requested the state investigate, in part because of concerns that Jason Doyle’s father, Jerry Doyle, is Lockhart’s fire chief and was acting as the city’s fire marshal at the time.
Authorities say Doyle and his wife Kelly, 28, were responsible for two fires at their Lockhart home and one at a vacant house owned by Jerry Doyle.
The first fire was on the night of Dec. 30, 2008 in the garage of Jason and Kelly Doyle’s home at 407 Summerside Avenue. According to documents from the State Fire Marshal’s Office obtained under the Texas Open Records Act, the fire started near a water heater, and Jerry Doyle “believed a coupling on the water heater blew.”
The couple told investigators they and their children were sleeping when they awoke to noises and discovered the fire.
The family then moved in with Jerry Doyle but returned to their house on Jan. 1, 2009 to pick up “socks and cereal.”
They left for McDonald’s and a fire broke out in one of the children’s’ bedrooms that Jason Doyle told investigators started from an overheated battery in a computer game.
The first-degree arson charges stemmed from the second fire because a firefighter was hurt.
Then on Jan. 6, 2009, fire broke out in a home on FM 671 next door to Jerry Doyle that he had inherited from his mother. It was vacant and used for storage and the electricity was on although it did not have water.
A motorist driving by saw the flames, stopped, called 911 and grabbed a water hose and yelled for occupants to get out. She told investigators that Jason Doyle told her the house was vacant.
That fire started on a back porch.
The state investigator also interviewed several neighbors, one of whom said Jason Doyle had been trying to sell the house and another that said Kelly Doyle didn’t want to live there.
In ruling the fires “incendiary,” the state investigator said she based her findings on “a methodical search of the area, observation of fire travel, evidence obtained at the scene and statements by eyewitnesses.”
Jerry Doyle has not been charged with any crime, and gave the state investigators written consent to conduct the fire investigation on the home he owned.
The child endangerment charges reflect the fact that Jason and Kelly Doyle’s children were home at the time of the first fire.
The first-degree arson charge carries a possible penalty of a jail sentence of five to 99 years and a fine not to exceed $10,000. Child endangerment is a state jail felony, with a maximum punishment of two years in a state jail facility.
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