Fireman Enters Plea in Arson

A retired Los Angeles firefighter captured after 2 1/2 years on the run from charges that he stalked his ex-wife, beat her and set fire to her South Pasadena carport pleaded no contest Tuesday to arson and will be sentenced to two years in prison.

David Walter Pierson, 67, captured in Laughlin, Nev., last September by South Pasadena police, entered the plea in Pasadena Superior Court.

Charged with arson, spousal abuse, burglary of a vehicle, stalking and three counts of violating a court order, Deputy Dist. Atty. Philip Wojdak said, Pierson faced up to eight years in prison if convicted.

“Given his age and his lack of a prior record, this is a stiff disposition,” Wojdak said of the plea bargain. Pierson must pay his ex-wife $4,000 in restitution before his Feb. 5 sentencing.

Pierson was captured Sept. 18 after investigators discovered that retirement checks were being mailed to a Laughlin post office box, South Pasadena police said. Postal inspectors, who received Pierson’s photograph, confirmed that he visited it every Tuesday.

Pierson, who was a firefighter for 27 years, fled California after witnesses saw him set fire to his ex-wife Pauline Hohrmann’s car and two other vehicles in a South Pasadena garage on April 19, 1999--weeks after she got a restraining order against him.

Robert Jones, a South Pasadena Fire Department investigator, said Pierson admitted the arson during the drive back from Nevada after his arrest. Jones said Pierson used a flammable liquid to ignite the fire that destroyed his ex-wife’s car and two other vehicles and burned an adjoining structure and a utility pole in the 1800 block of Fremont Avenue.