Arson charges dropped in Junction

GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. ” A Grand Junction man is out of jail after Mesa County prosecutors dropped arson charges stemming from a series of fires at a single home.

District Attorney Pete Hautzinger says further investigation indicates 48-year-old Phillip James Marshall was at a Catholic Outreach of the Grand Valley facility when the blazes broke out.

Marshall had been advised Monday that he could face four counts of first-degree arson, one count of second-degree arson, and perhaps other charges.

But Chief Deputy District Attorney Dan Rubinstein said in a motion filed Thursday that police had uncovered additional information that “calls into question the identity of the person responsible.”

He declined to elaborate.