Prosecutors Seek to Link Accused Killer to 2 More Fires

Prosecutors in the murder trial of a former Glendale fire captain, a convicted arsonist, are trying to link him to two fires at Pasadena supermarkets in 1984 in addition to the fire involved in the alleged murders.

Former arson investigator John L. Orr is serving a 30-year federal prison term after being convicted in 1995 on six counts of arson--five of which were for fires set while Orr attended two arson investigators’ conventions in Central California.

He faces a state trial on four murder counts for a 1984 arson fire at Ole’s Home Center in Pasadena, the subject of a pretrial hearing Monday.

Two store employees, ages 17 and 26, and two customers, ages 50 and 2, were killed in that fire. Because he is charged with multiple murders, Orr could face the death penalty if convicted.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Michael Cabral requested permission Monday to include evidence from two other fires that occurred the same day--Oct. 10, 1984--as the Ole’s fire.

Orr was not charged with those two fires because the statute of limitations had expired before investigators implicated him, Cabral said. However, prosecutors hope to “establish a pattern of fire-setting conduct” by drawing similarities between these two fires, the Ole’s arson and other crimes of which Orr has been convicted, he said.

“We believe this pattern was part of a common plan,” Cabral said.

The two Pasadena fires occurred at Albertson’s on Sierra Madre Boulevard and Vons on Fair Oaks Avenue, which was just two blocks south of Ole’s, Cabral said.

“We are calling them ‘potato chip fires’ because they were set in potato chip racks,” he said. “We’re using this to prove he was responsible for the Ole’s fire. Our case doesn’t hinge on this evidence, but it’s very important to us.”

Defense lawyers for Orr could not be reached for comment Monday.

Superior Court Judge Robert Perry will decide within the next few weeks whether jurors will be allowed to hear evidence of the two Pasadena fires, as well as information regarding federal arson charges against Orr that were dismissed in a 1993 plea bargain and his suspected links to another 1985 attempted arson at another Ole’s store.

The current grand jury indictment against Orr also includes arson charges for 1990 and 1991 incidents in Burbank, La Canada and Glendale, including a fire that destroyed the Burbank set for the television series “The Waltons.”