Community Risk

N.C. Man Charged in Fire That Killed His Mother

Oct. 22, 2013

First-degree murder charges have been filed against a Gastonia man who allegedly started a fire that killed his mother.

Source The Charlotte Observer

Oct. 22--A Gastonia man has been charged with arson and first-degree murder in the death of his mother following a house fire earlier this month, police say.

Gastonia police say Jerry Gibble, 47, faces charges in connection with the death of Brenda Dixon Jenkins, 68. She died of smoke inhalation suffered in an Oct. 11 blaze at a house on West McFarland Avenue.

Authorities say the fire was reported about 3:30 a.m. at a home that Gibble and Jenkins rented. When firefighters arrived, they found Gibble outside the home, trying to revive his mother.

Jenkins was taken to a Gastonia hospital, where she died of her injuries.

Gibble was arrested Monday and is being held without bond. He has a lengthy record of arrests, according to North Carolina legal records, and served about six years in prison.

Over the years, he has been charged with DWI, drug offenses and assault.

Police have not said what the motive might have been for the fire.

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