Transient Faces Trial in Studio City Arson

A 37-year-old transient was ordered Friday to stand trial on charges that he set three fires in a busy Studio City commercial strip in December, causing $2.5 million in damage to eight Ventura Boulevard stores.

San Fernando Municipal Judge Juelann Cathey ruled that there was sufficient circumstantial evidence against John Kellogges to suggest that he was responsible for the fires, although prosecutors have no witnesses who saw the fires set.

The Dec. 26 blaze broke out at midday, gutting a Pier 1 Imports and a Strouds Linen Warehouse.

Four other stores, including a popular guitar and music shop, were severely damaged.

If convicted on all counts, Kellogges could be sentenced to 18 years in prison.

During the preliminary hearing, which concluded Friday, two security guards at a Thrifty drugstore near the buildings that burned said that shortly after the fire broke out at Pier 1 they saw Kellogges, covered with soot, running in an alley behind the Pier 1 toward the Strouds store.

Moments later, the guards said, Kellogges dashed into Strouds and a fire broke out there.

A third Thrifty employee, Brian Miller, said that later, Kellogges, dirty and smelling of smoke, walked into the Thrifty store and muttered “There’s a man looking at the Strouds mirror and he was so ugly that the mirror caught fire.”

Kellogges was arrested the day after the fires when a customer in a restaurant near the fire scene told police that a man in the restroom matched the description of the suspected arsonist.

When Kellogges was arrested, he had matches and a lighter, smelled of smoke and was wearing clothes that had been charred by fire, police said.

After his arrest, Kellogges led investigators to rooms in an abandoned Studio City motel where he had been staying.

Los Angeles City Fire Department Arson Investigator Thomas Campuzano said many small fires had been set there.

During the testimony, Kellogges sat with his arms crossed over his chest and his head down, occasionally smoothing his gray hair.

Kellogges’ public defender, Thom Tibor, expressed doubts about Kellogges’ mental competency to stand trial and said he may seek a mental evaluation before any further court proceedings.

Kellogges is scheduled to be arraigned in Superior Court on Feb. 22.