A judge on Wednesday ordered a man charged with starting a massive downtown Los Angeles fire that destroyed the Da Vinci apartment complex and caused $100 million in damages to stand trial on arson charges in connection with the 2014 blaze.
Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge M.L. Villar delivered the decision following a two-day preliminary hearing for Dawud Abdulwali, who is accused of starting the Dec. 7, 2014, fire that charred the unfinished, seven-story complex along the 110 Freeway.
“There is overwhelming circumstantial evidence,” she said.
There were no injuries or deaths caused by the fire, but prosecutors say the blaze put lives at risk. Abdulwali, 57, has pleaded not guilty.
On Wednesday, Deputy Dist. Atty. Sean Carney showed the judge a video recording from a building across the 110 Freeway from the Da Vinci site that depicts the minutes leading up to the fire.
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More than 200 firefighters work to control a massive fire as it destroys a seven-story building under construction in downtown Los Angeles. (MARIANA ROSALES / EPA)
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A staircase to nowhere sits by itself after a massive fire in downtown Los Angeles early Dec. 8 leveled an apartment tower under construction. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)
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Arson investigators from the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives on scene to conduct an investigation into December’s Da Vinci apartment complex fire. (Barbara Davidson / Los Angeles Times)
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An elevated view of all that is left of the 1.3 million-square-foot Da Vinci apartment complex that was destroyed by fire in December. (Barbara Davidson / Los Angeles Times)
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Traffic flows along the 110 Freeway in downtown Los Angeles next to the remains of what was to be the Da Vinci apartment complex that was destroyed by fire in December. (Barbara Davidson / Los Angeles Times)
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A massive fire engulfs a apartment building construction site near downtown Los Angeles on Dec. 8. (Nancy Yuille / Associated Press)
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A crane begins to tear down the seven-story Da Vinci apartment complex. (Barbara Davidson / Los Angeles Times)
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The smoldering ruins of the Da Vinici building. (Barbara Davidson / Los Angeles Times)
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Work crews walk past a still-smoldering construction site after it was destroyed in an early morning fire. (Barbara Davidson / Los Angeles Times)
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Investigators outside a building that was partially destroyed in an early morning fire next to the 110 Freeway. (Barbara Davidson / Los Angeles Times)
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Arson investigators survey the scene after a massive fire in downtown Los Angeles. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)
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Caltrans workers remove signs over the 110 Freeway after a massive fire at a nearby apartment complex project on Dec. 8. (Patrick T. Fallon / For The Times)
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A firefighter hoses down hot spots after battling a massive fire at the Da Vinci apartment complex under construction on Temple Street and Fremont Avenue in downtown Los Angeles on Dec. 8. (Patrick T. Fallon / For The Times)
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Arson investigators and an ATF agent, center, walk along the 110 Freeway near the site of the blaze on Dec. 8. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)
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Firefighters spray water on hot spots after a massive fire in downtown Los Angeles in December. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)
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The extreme heat from the fire melted a nearby parking sign. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)
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Firefighters look out from the shattered windows of a nearby office building damaged by the morning blaze. The huge L.A. fire that engulfed an apartment tower over an area the size of a city block is being treated as a criminal fire. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)
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A firefighter looks at the twisted metal that used to be scaffolding surrounding an apartment complex under construction brought down by a massive fire in downtown Los Angeles early Dec. 8. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)
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A burnt palm tree is all that if left standing after a massive fire in downtown Los Angeles in December. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)
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As freeway traffic passes by, smoke rises from the scene of a massive fire at the Da Vinci apartment complex project in downtown Los Angeles on Dec. 8. (Patrick T. Fallon / For The Times)
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Blown-out windows are seen on the Lewis Brisbois Building on Dec. 8 as smoke lingers after a massive fire at a nearby apartment complex project in downtown Los Angeles. (Patrick T. Fallon / For The Times)
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Firefighters stand on the 110 Freeway on Dec. 8 after battling a massive fire at the nearby Da Vinci apartment complex under construction on Temple Street and Fremont Avenue in downtown Los Angeles. (Patrick T. Fallon / For The Times)
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Firefighters tackle the remnants of a massive fire at the Da Vinci apartment complex project downtown Los Angeles on Dec. 8. (Patrick T. Fallon / For The Times)
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A stairwell is all that remains standing Dec. 8 as firefighters work on subduing a blaze at an apartment complex project in downtown Los Angeles. (Patrick T. Fallon / For The Times)
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Firefighters battle a blaze at a construction site on 7th street near MacArthur Park in Los Angeles on Dec. 8. (Patrick T. Fallon / For The Times)
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Firefighters tackle a fire at a construction site on 7th street near MacArthur Park in Los Angeles on Dec. 8. (Patrick T. Fallon / For The Times)
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CalTrans crews begin the clean up process on the 110 Freeway after a massive fire that engulfed an apartment tower under construction left freeways signs damaged and debris scattered across lanes. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)
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Parts of scaffolding are all that is left standing after a massive fire in downtown Los Angeles. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)
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Parts of scaffolding are all that is left standing after a massive fire in downtown Los Angeles engulfed an apartment tower under construction. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)
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Firefighters hose down hot spots after battling a massive fire in downtown Los Angeles on Dec. 8. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)
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Smoke lingers on Dec. 8 after a massive fire in downtown Los Angeles engulfed an apartment tower under construction. (Patrick T. Fallon / For the Times)
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Firefighters spray water on the remnants of a structure fire in downtown Los Angeles. The building was completely destroyed and the intense heat heavily damaged two nearby buildings while also forcing the closure of Interstate 110. (PAUL BUCK / EPA)
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Los Angeles County firefighters battle a fire at an apartment building under construction next to the 110 Freeway in Los Angeles. (Damian Dovarganes / Associated Press)
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Los Angeles County firefighters battle a fire at an apartment building under construction next to the 110 Freeway in Los Angeles. (Damian Dovarganes / Associated Press)
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Los Angeles County firefighters battle a fire at an apartment building under construction next to the 110 Freeway in Los Angeles. (Damian Dovarganes / Associated Press)
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Los Angeles County firefighters battle a fire at an apartment building under construction next to the 110 Freeway in Los Angeles. (Damian Dovarganes / Associated Press)
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Firefighters work to put out flames at an apartment complex under construction in downtown Los Angeles on Dec. 8. (Patrick T. Fallon / Los Angeles Times)
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A fire lights the night sky near the 110 and 101 freeways in downtown Los Angeles on Dec. 8. (Damian Dovarganes / Associated Press)
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Firefighters deal with heavy smokes as they battle a blaze in the 900 block of Fremont Avenue in downtown Los Angeles on Dec. 8. (Patrick J. Fallon / Los Angeles Times)
Los Angeles Fire arson Investigator Robert McLoud, who reviewed the footage during his investigation, explained that the video shows a vehicle stopping on the shoulder of the northbound 110 Freeway alongside the apartment complex at 11:18 p.m. The driver puts on the car’s emergency lights and exits the vehicle, making his way up an embankment and into the complex. A few minutes later, there appears to be a flash from inside, McLoud said.
McLoud said that vehicle appeared to be a taxi cab with a dark colored top and lighter colored sides.
The investigator testified that he later received Abdulwali’s name as a person of interest in the case and found someone by that name on Facebook. One post on the person’s Facebook page showed a photograph of a taxi cab from the Independent Taxi Cab Co., he said. The taxi in the photograph looked the same as the one on the video, he testified. Other posts included derogatory remarks about police officers and comments about high-profile police killings of African Americans.
McLoud quoted one comment as saying, “How many buildings have to be burned to the ground” for the killings to stop?”
Special Agent Sam Chung of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives testified that he met with the owner of the Independent Taxi Cab Co. The company’s records showed that the car in question was no longer being used as a taxi and had been sold.
Chung testified that DMV records showed that the car was purchased by Abdulwali.
An undercover LAPD officer testified that a team of investigators surveilled Abdulwali and saw him driving the same cab.
LAPD Det. Peter Lee said that information from a cellphone provider showed that a phone belonging to Abdulwali was near the Da Vinci site during the time the fire started.
The testimony came a day after another man told the court that Abdulwali, 57, bragged to him at a party a week after the fire that he had set the blaze and was angry about the August 2014 killing of Michael Brown, an unarmed black man, by a white police officer in Ferguson, Mo.
“He was mad,” Popaul Tshimanga said, adding that the defendant said “he burned the building” near the 110 Freeway. “He didn’t like the way the cops were killing black people.”
The prosecution also played a recording of Abdulwali’s former roommate telling police that he, too, heard Abdulwali speak passionately about the protests in Ferguson following the fatal shooting of Brown and about wanting vengeance.
“Cops kill my people,” Edwyn Gomez recalled his roommate saying. “We should go do this, we should go burn some [expletive] down.... We should go break some windows.”
Both men testified that they didn’t go to police at the time because they didn’t think Abdulwali was serious about burning buildings.
On Wednesday, L.A.’s mayor and police chief had harsh words about the link alleged between Brown’s killing and the downtown L.A. fire.
“To think that this is any kind of justification for burning down and risking lives in Los Angeles is absolutely ridiculous,” LAPD Chief Charlie Beck said.
Mayor Eric Garcetti noted that many people were upset about events in Ferguson but didn’t resort to violence.
“There are a lot of people who are angry about images that we see and what we saw in Ferguson. But I didn’t go lighting up a building,” Garcetti said. “All the other people I know who were upset didn’t go out destroying property, causing us millions of dollars of damage and risking lives.”
Abdulwali is scheduled to be arraigned May 25 on aggravated arson and arson of a structure charges.
Times staff writer Kate Mather contributed to this report.
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MORE ON THE CASE
Man accused of Da Vinci apartment arson was angry about police killings of African Americans, witnesses say
Video shows man at Da Vinci apartment site at time of fire, source says
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