THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, March 4, 1995 TAG: 9503040420
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: NEW BERN, N.C. LENGTH: Short : 37 lines
A second Marine charged with igniting a massive blaze in the Croatan National Forest last spring has been arrested.
Cpl. Samuel Edward Perry, 26, of Camp Lejeune was arrested by U.S. marshals in Jacksonville Thursday, two months after he was indicted by a federal grand jury in New Bern.
Perry is one of three men charged with intentionally torching a truck in the Jones County portion of the Croatan last May, starting a blaze that consumed 24,600 acres of the 160,000-acre forest.
Lance Cpl. Darrin York Hackett, 25, surrendered to U.S. marshals in New Bern Jan. 10. Jack Melvin Knouse Jr., 20, a former Marine, is in another state and marshals said they know where he is and expect to arrest him soon.
Perry and Hackett are assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 2nd Marine Division, at Camp Lejeune. Knouse was discharged from the Marine Corps at Camp Lejeune after the fire.
Indicted Jan. 2, all three are charged with arson, arson within a special maritime and territorial jurisdiction and timber set afire.
The warrants for the arrest of the men were filed about two months ago. But marshals thought Perry was out of the country on a military deployment and had not arrested him. Perry had actually returned from a six-month deployment in November. After marshals learned that he was at Camp Lejeune, they picked him up.
KEYWORDS: FIRE ARREST ARSON by CNB