HOUSTON -- A convicted arsonist has been charged with felony crimes in connection with a string of arson fires that put residents on edge in the Gulfton area of southwest Houston, Local 2 Investigates reported Tuesday.

As many as 12 fires were set at apartment complexes between October and December of 2008, including some complexes that were torched more than once, according to Houston Fire Department Arson Squad investigators.

Local 2 Investigates reported in January that investigators had identified a prime suspect in the case after his cellular telephone was found near the spot where one of the most recent fires had been set.

John Leonard Morin, 45, faces an arrest warrant for felony arson for that fire where the cellular phone was found. Investigators said the phone contained a list of calls to one of Morin's relatives, which helped to break the case.

Morin has been in jail for past ordeals where he watched fire trucks rushing to the scene of various reports of fires.

In 1992, he was sentenced to four years in prison after pleading guilty to a string of 50 fires at Gulfton-area apartment complexes.

When he was first identified as a suspect in this latest string of fires, he was jailed on unrelated charges.

When he was released, he was arrested again on Jan. 1, 2009, on charges of placing a phony 911 call reporting a fire.

Court records showed he called 911 and provided a false name and phone number as he reported a building on fire on Mullins Street.

Fire crews rushed to the scene and found nothing, and then Morin was spotted nearby and two Fire Department employees recognized his voice on the 911 call recording.

Morin has not yet been arrested in the recent cases.

A prosecutor assigned to the case said he is the prime suspect in all of the latest suspicious Gulfton fires, but charges are only anticipated in a couple of the cases.