Suspect arrested in Little Creek Golf Club arson

SOUTH CHARLESTON, W.Va. (WCHS/WVAH) — South Charleston police arrested a man who is accused of breaking into a maintenance building at Little Creek Golf Club and setting it on fire last February.

Charles Matthew Lawson, 43, was arrested early Thursday morning and is charged with breaking and entering and second-degree arson, according to a criminal complaint filed in Kanawha County Magistrate Court.

On Feb. 8, the South Charleston Fire Department and South Charleston Police Department responded to a fire at Little Creek Golf Club. When they arrived about 3 a.m., the maintenance building that contained an office, lawnmowers, and other equipment was engulfed in flames. The fire caused hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of damage.

After the fire was ruled suspicious, police began collecting surveillance video from the golf club and from nearby locations, including Richmond Elementary School.

With the investigation ongoing, South Charleston police responded to an unrelated breaking and entering on Tuesday and found Lawson running away from a building, the complaint said. As police chased Lawson, the complaint said he jumped in a dark blue Chevrolet Sonic and started to put it in drive. The officer pulled his gun and ordered the suspect to stop the car. Lawson was then arrested.

During the arrest, police seized Lawson’s cell phone.

While continuing to investigate, police found the Chevrolet Sonic Lawson was driving matched the car seen on surveillance video at the time of the Little Creek Golf Club arson.

Police then received a search warrant for Lawson’s phone and discovered he had placed a call at 3:38 a.m. Feb. 8 near the Little Creek Golf Club’s maintenance building.

The complaint said that only the suspect "who committed this breaking and entering/arson would have been near this maintenance building at this time.”

Lawson is currently being held in the South Central Regional Jail on a $15,000 bond.