A Waynesboro man claims he was drunk when he vandalized Botsford Baptist Church on Sunday, leaving a trail of broken windows, beer bottles and his wallet.
Joshua Dalton Jarrell, 26, was arrested Monday after he was traced back to the crime from his wallet with two credit cards inside with his name on them. Video surveillance also caught his truck at the church, located at 825 Botsford Church Road in Waynesboro.
“Talk about making it easy on us,” sheriff’s Col. J. W. “Jimmy” Wylds said.
On Sunday, a church employee reported several broken windows in the sanctuary hall and broken beer bottles inside the building. A large stained-glass window was shattered along with several smaller broken windows. A small hole in one of the windows suggested the impact of a projectile from a firearm, Col. Wylds said. Additionally, the church’s roadside sign had been damaged by gunfire.
Officers found .22 caliber cartridges scattered around the church grounds as well as the suspect’s wallet. The damages are estimated to be $15,000.
Jarrell, who lives two miles away from the church on Hancock Landing Road, was charged Monday with criminal damage to property, weapon possession, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon and marijuana possession. He was transported to and booked at the Burke County Detention Center.
Jarrell is the same man arrested in 2020 for trespassing in Columbia County when he came to a woman’s Martinez home demanding medication that he believed he left there. When he couldn’t find it, he threatened her and left, only to return, kick in the front door, and damage the door frame, a sheriff’s report says.
