No Bail in Fire-Death Case : Hearing: Janitor charged with bookkeeper’s immolation. Associates say love and money troubles may have pushed him over edge.

Jonathan Daniel D’Arcy, who associates say was pushed past the edge of desperation by a souring love affair and a bitter feud over paychecks, was charged Thursday with murder and torture in the burning death of a Tustin bookkeeper.

D’Arcy appeared before Municipal Judge Gary P. Ryan, who ordered the 30-year-old La Habra janitor held without bail.

He could face the death penalty if convicted.

D’Arcy is accused of slaying Quintessence Building Maintenance Co. bookkeeper Karen Marie LaBorde on Tuesday in a rage over a late paycheck. He appeared relaxed in court, sometimes staring directly and serenely at news photographers taking his picture.

Deputy Dist. Atty. David Brent said blood tests are being performed to determine whether D’Arcy--who reportedly told his girlfriend he could not remember the incident--was under the influence of drugs or alcohol at the time of the crime.

“We believe there is evidence to prove D’Arcy intended to kill (LaBorde), and intended to hurt her,” Brent said. “If he claims he was unconscious, or on drugs, the jury will have to determine whether that is true.”

Associates close to D’Arcy said they find it difficult to reconcile the charges with the man they know.

The owner of a Santa Ana industrial landscaping firm said he had hired D’Arcy to do janitorial work and found him to be a “caring person who was just trying to get by.”

The employer, who asked that he not be identified, vowed to “be there for him, praying, if the worst verdict comes out.” He said Quintessence “wasn’t very nice” to D’Arcy and had repeatedly delayed paying him.

“That company took advantage of him, and just pushed him over the line,” the employer said. “And maybe he went berserk.”

The man said he had taken D’Arcy under his wing in recent months, giving him personal, business and religious counseling.

“He had the attitude that he was determined to make something out of his life,” the employer said, “and you couldn’t help but want to reach out and help him.”

The employer met D’Arcy after calling Quintessence last summer to contract for custodial work. A few days later D’Arcy reported for duty.

D’Arcy did his job well and performed small kindnesses for office workers. But after a month, the employer said, he learned that Quintessence wasn’t paying D’Arcy.

“He came over to the office and seemed pressured and embarrassed and asked if we had paid our bill,” the man said. “The answer was, of course, ‘Yes.’ And then we discovered that they had not paid him.”

The employer said that he subsequently fired Quintessence and hired D’Arcy and his girlfriend’s sons independently. He advised D’Arcy on how to get new contracts and told him to rent uniforms to present himself better.

Yet, D’Arcy still worked occasionally for Quintessence, and one day asked his Santa Ana employer if he could use the telephone to call Quintessence in an effort to collect a check.

“Jon took the phone, asked for the bookkeeper, and after a while held the phone away from his ear, and you could hear someone cussing and swearing at him,” said the Santa Ana employer. “So you wonder why he went directly to the bookkeeper at that company? Put two and two together. He had several conversations with her, and he had knowledge that she was the person who wasn’t paying him.”

Quintessence officials declined to comment.

Jeremy Willis, the 17-year-old son of the murder suspect’s girlfriend, said D’Arcy was under intense pressure to help his mother prevent a bank from foreclosing on their La Habra home.

“He needed money--he wanted to get our business going--because my mom was going to lose the house and he felt badly about that. Jon tried to contribute every month to the payments. . . .”

Jeremy said his mother, Joan Leslie Willis, had a rocky relationship with D’Arcy and told him to leave “all the time.” She had filed restraining orders against him, complaining of violence and theft, three times between 1987 and 1989. But he never left, Jeremy said, because “he had nowhere to go.”

A week before the incident at Quintessence, D’Arcy tearfully told his Santa Ana employer that he “wasn’t good enough” for Willis.

“He said that he really loved her and was doing everything he could to make her happy,” the employer said.

“I had to hold myself back from putting my arm around him as he cried, then I told him, ‘Jon, you have a lot going for you, and you have to realize down deep inside you’re someone special.’ He choked up and said ‘Thank you.’ ”

On the morning of the day that LaBorde died, D’Arcy awoke at 6:30 at the Willis home and headed in his pickup truck for his regular assignment to clean the offices of an Anaheim manufacturer.

But something went wrong. Jeremy Willis said that an MDT Biological worker called him to say D’Arcy abruptly quit and that the worker asked Willis if he wanted the job instead.

About an hour later, D’Arcy bought gasoline at a service station, said Tustin Police Lt. Chuck Crane, then went to the Irvine Boulevard offices of Quintessence.

Witnesses said he told the company’s receptionist, “I want to see Kari (LaBorde). I want to see her now!”--then pushed past her to LaBorde’s office.

Minutes later, LaBorde was set ablaze. She later died at UCI Medical Center.

D’Arcy was arrested in a parking lot next to Quintessence.