KINGWOOD — The ex-boyfriend of a Masontown woman is charged with arson in the weekend burning of her house.
Desmond Devon Simmons, 34, is charged with first-degree arson, domestic battery and battery. He was in the Tygart Valley Regional Jail Monday in lieu of $253,000 bond.
In court records, he has addresses listed for the home on Walnut Street, Masontown, that he is accused of burning, and in Clarksburg.
According to criminal complaints by State Police Trooper J.L. Anglin, the woman who owned the house told him two neighbors saw Simmons, who is her ex-boyfriend, leaving the house just before the fire became visible Saturday.
Preston 911 advised the trooper that Simmons’ cell phone “pinged” within 100 yards of the residence at the time of the fire. After the fire, Morgantown Police pursued the defendant’s vehicle in Monongalia County before terminating the pursuit because it reached unsafe speeds.
Trooper Anglin was already familiar with Simmons because the woman who owned the house had accused Simmons of domestic violence two days before the fire.
According to the criminal complaint, the woman said Simmons had been drinking with her and her cousin at the Walnut Street house when he threw the two women outside. Simmons slammed the woman into the ground, so that she lost consciousness for a time, according to the complaint.
The fire was reported to Preston 911 at 12:36 a.m. Masontown, Reedsville and Cool Springs Volunteer Fire Departments, West Virginia State Police, Preston Sheriff’s deputies, KAMP Ambulance and the American Red Cross responded.
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