Grand jury declines to indict man arrested in connection with Texas apartment fire that killed 5

SAN MARCOS, Texas (AP) — A grand jury has declined to indict a man who was arrested in connection with a Texas apartment fire that killed five people in 2018, prosecutors said Thursday.

The grand jury this week decided against indicting 31-year-old Jacobe Ferguson in the arson causing death case, the Hays County District Attorney’s Office said in a news release. He’d been accused of starting the July 20, 2018, fire in San Marcos, a city of about 70,000 southwest of Austin that’s home to Texas State University.

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Ferguson was arrested in July 2023 — five years after the fire that authorities said was intentionally set. The district attorney’s office said Ferguson has been free on bond and that the grand jury’s decision releases him from that bond.

Hays County District Attorney Kelly Higgins said in the news release that his office would continue to work with law enforcement to continue the investigation into the fire.

Ferguson’s attorney, Kristin Dow of the nonprofit Neighborhood Defender Service, said they were “extremely grateful” that the grand jury took the time to review the facts of the case and decided no charges were warranted.

Ferguson was a student at Texas State University at the time of the fire. And four of the victims were either current or former students there.