Judge Says Arson Suspect Still Mentally Unfit for Trial

A San Fernando Superior Court judge ruled Thursday that a 38-year-old transient charged with 10 counts of arson in connection with a string of fires in Studio City last December is still mentally incompetent to stand trial.

Judge Meredith C. Taylor ordered John Charles Kellogges returned to Patton State Hospital, where he has been held since August.

Kellogges will be re-evaluated every six months until he is found mentally competent to stand trial, or until he has been hospitalized for the maximum sentence he faces, which is 20 years, according to Kellogges’ attorney, Deputy Public Defender Thom Tibor.

Tibor said the longest time he has seen a defendant hospitalized until found competent to stand trial was two years.

Kellogges was arrested the day after the Dec. 26 blazes when a customer at a restaurant near the fire scene told police that he had seen a man in the restroom who matched the description of the suspected arsonist.

Kellogges’ charred clothes smelled of smoke when he was arrested, and he had a lighter and matches on him, police said.

The midday fires gutted a Pier 1 Imports store and a Strouds Linen Warehouse and damaged six other businesses, including a popular guitar store, located between the 12100 and 12500 blocks of Ventura Boulevard in Studio City.

Kellogges is also charged with starting a fire in a room at an abandoned motel in Studio City and setting fire on Nov. 28 to Danny’s Apple, an abandoned restaurant and nightclub on Ventura Boulevard in Encino.