Sentencing date paused, reset for Fairfield man for 2017 firebombing spree

In plea agreement, Matthew S. Jones to face as much as 13 years in state prison when sentenced on March 1 in Department 9 in the Justice Center in Fairfield

When sentenced in the coming weeks, a 44-yearold Fairfield man faces as much as 13 years in state prison after agreeing to a plea deal for a 2017 firebombing spree in Fairfield.

During a Nov. 19 trialsetting proceeding in Solano County Superior Court, Matthew Scott Jones instead pleaded no contest to one count of arson and three counts of setting off — or attempting to set off — an explosive device, all felonies.

In an agreement with Deputy Public Defender Sara Johnson, Deputy District Attorney Mary Nguyen agreed to dismiss two counts of attempted murder against Jones, court records indicate.

Jones, who has been declared mentally competent to stand trial, was scheduled to return to Department 9 on Monday but the hearing was rescheduled for 8:30 a.m. March 1, when Judge Carlos R. Gutierrez will hand down the prison term in the Justice Center in Fairfield.

Court documents did not indicate why an initial hate crime charge was not among the charges dropped or sustained.

With the plea agreement, Jones avoided the possibility of more prison time had he been found guilty at trial for the attempted murder charges.

Court records indicate that at 10 p.m. on April 27, 2017, Fairfield police officers responded to a fire at the Woodsong Village Apartments on North Texas Street. Investigators determined a homemade explosive device had been thrown through the window of an occupied apartment there.

Both victims were able to escape the apartment; however, the explosive device caused “substantial damage” to the apartment, Solano County District Attorney Krishna Abrams said in the prepared statement at the time. Police records also indicated that Jones had been using racial slurs toward his neighbors in the apartment complex.

About 30 minutes later, Fairfield officers responded to a report of a vehicle fire on Thames Court. Investigators determined a homemade explosive device had been thrown through the window of a parked vehicle.

On the following morning, at about 1 a.m., there was another explosion in front of the Fairfield Police Department. During that investigation, it was later determined that a homemade explosive device had been thrown toward the department entrance at 1000 Webster St.

At 10 a.m. that same morning, the officers found a fourth homemade explosive device at the Nexeo chemical plant on Crocker Circle.

With the help of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, investigators were able to determine that Jones was responsible for all four incidents and he was later arrested and booked without bail into Solano County Jail in Fairfield.

For a time, Jones was deemed mentally incompetent. The case was removed from control of the Solano County Superior Court in May 2019. Jones was committed to a state hospital on May 30, 2019, for a maximum of two years, court records show. He was deemed mentally competent to stand trial on Sept. 1, 2020, and Gutierrez reinstated criminal proceedings on Sept. 18.

Jones’ case was previously suspended on March 12, 2018, and, three days later, Gutierrez appointed a doctor to examine the defendant to determine his mental competency to stand trial and the need to administer antipsychotic drugs.

Criminal proceedings were reinstated on Dec. 5, 2018, the same day a confidential verdict was delivered, according to court records. A jury had found Jones competent to stand trial.

Arguments by Nguyen appeared to sway the panel of eight men and four women, with her advising that the defendant was “able to articulate” to FBI and Fairfield police investigators why he did what he did.

During the trial, Johnson said that Jones suffers from schizoaffective disorder, a hybrid mental condition that includes schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and depression. She said her client suffers from delusions, claiming Jones’ alleged violent acts were essentially symptomatic of someone experiencing the same “fixed delusions,” that attorneys and the community at large were persecuting him.