Hockley County Officers Catch Confessed Serial Arsonist
By: Lisa Carr
Updated: January 9, 2008
A Lubbock man is indicted on Wednesday on felony arson charges after he confesses to setting more than a dozen fires in Hockley County.
Authorities say Jody Langley of Lubbock has been keeping firefighters busy since the beginning of November.They say it appears, Langley usually used a lighter to set the blazes and he's admitted to burning 17 different oil and CRP fields just outside of Levelland and near Sundown. Officials identified Langley as a suspect just before Christmas, when a Sundown volunteer fireman actually saw him leaving the scene of a fire. Authorities say Langley may have only targeted fields, but he put many lives in danger and cost the county thousands of dollars."One of the biggest expenses is actually the firemen you know responding to these fires. It costs quite a bit to roll out those trucks and fight those fires," says Hockley County Sheriff David Kinney. Levelland Fire Chief Marvin Brewer adds, "This grass can spread at a very rapid pace where it's hard to get in front of it and control it. Therefore, any structures, homes, businesses, houses, in the path of it could have been in danger."
If convicted of these charges, Langley could get anything from probation and paying restitution to spending several years in prison. He's currently out of jail on a $10,000 bond.
