Santa Clarita / Antelope Valley : Wife, Adopted Son Face Trial in Officer’s Death : Arson: The retired LAPD sergeant’s relatives are accused of setting fire to their house and leaving him inside to die.

More than a year after their arrest, two family members accused of killing retired LAPD Officer Tom Hooker by setting fire to his Littlerock home were ordered Wednesday to stand trial on murder and arson charges.

After a preliminary hearing, Antelope Municipal Court Judge Ian R. Grant ruled that there was sufficient cause to order a trial for David Warren Hooker, 32, the officer’s adopted son, and Joy Girard Hooker, 50, the officer’s third wife.

Los Angeles County sheriff’s investigators have alleged that David and Joy Hooker became lovers and set the fire to collect insurance money on the house. The pair left Tom Hooker, who was legally blind and in poor health, inside, where he died of smoke inhalation, investigators say.

At Wednesday’s hearing, Grant rejected motions from David Hooker, who is serving as his own attorney, and from Joy Hooker’s attorney, who both argued that the charges should be dropped because the evidence did not prove that the fire was anything more than an accident.

Investigators say the defendants implicated themselves in the crime. Doral Riggs, a Sheriff’s Department homicide detective, testified Wednesday that after repeated questioning by deputies, both defendants admitted setting fire to the house because the family could not keep up the mortgage payments.

Joy Hooker “indicated that the fire had been set on purpose, that (she) and David set the fire,” Riggs testified. “She said she’d been going through a lot of financial difficulties. . . . They felt that setting this fire would delay the foreclosure and give them operating capital to get back on their feet.”

When he was told about Joy Hooker’s confession, David Hooker also admitted that he helped start the fire for financial gain, Riggs said. But David Hooker also said he did not expect the fire to harm his father, the investigator said.

Thomas W. Hooker, who rose to the rank of sergeant in the LAPD, had boasted that he was the inspiration for the 1980s television series “T.J. Hooker,” but the creator of the series has denied it.

He was 58 when he died in the fire on April 19, 1993, in the master bedroom of his Littlerock house. Before his death, he was suffering from diabetes and a failing heart and kidneys, authorities said.

David Hooker had moved in with his father and stepmother in September, 1992, after his release from prison, where he had served time for a bank robbery.

Joy Hooker, while coping with the family’s financial troubles, had grown weary of caring for an invalid husband, sheriff’s investigators allege. They believe she joined David in setting a sofa afire. The pair rescued a family dog as they fled but left the ailing Tom Hooker inside, deputies allege.

“I believe she intended for Tom Hooker to die in the fire,” Riggs testified. “I believe she just wanted to get rid of him. I think she was tired of taking care of him.”

Joy Hooker’s attorney, Laizer D. Gould, disputed this view. “I don’t believe there’s any evidence of any intent on the part of Joy Hooker to murder her husband,” he said after the hearing.

The defendants were ordered to remain in jail pending a June 29 arraignment in Lancaster Superior Court.

Prosecutors have said the case has been prolonged partly by David Hooker’s decision to serve as his own defense attorney. He wore an orange Los Angeles County Jail jumpsuit while questioning witnesses during Wednesday’s hearing.

Earlier this month, he sought unsuccessfully to remove Grant from the case, asserting that the judge was biased against him.