Arson Suspect Seeks Visitation Rights With His Daughter
CORRECTION (Valley Voice, August 10, 1995): Virginia Fox, who owned the mobile home at University Mobile Home Park that burned on April 4, received a $9,000 settlement from her insurance company. The recipient of the settlements was incorrectly reported in Saturday’s Valley Voice.
A former Spokane Valley man accused of setting fire to a mobile home while his children were asleep inside asked a Superior Court judge this week to grant him visitation with his daughter.
David Janson was in court Wednesday for arraignment on a charge of first-degree arson. Janson entered a plea of not guilty and was ordered by Judge Kathleen O’Connor to have no contact with the prosecution’s witnesses, including Debra Ovnicek, until after the trial.
Janson’s 3-year-old daughter is staying with Ovnicek, a family friend.
Janson, who now lives in Wilbur, Wash., asked O’Connor to grant him visitation with his daughter while he awaits trial. The Superior Court judge declined, saying visitation is a family court matter.
Trial was set for August 28, but could be postponed until October to give Janson’s attorney more time to prepare.
Janson, 41, is accused of setting fire to the rented trailer he shared with his two daughters. Both daughters - the oldest is 16 years old - were asleep inside the trailer when the fire started at about 4 a.m.
If convicted, Janson could face two years in prison.
Investigators believe Janson used gasoline to fuel the fire, which destroyed the trailer at University Mobile Home Park, 9518 E. Fourth, Valley Fire Inspector Eric Olson said.
Janson was arrested on June 30 and released on his own recognizance four days later.
Valley Fire officials were suspicious of how rapidly the fire spread. The fire reduced the trailer to a scorched mess of sheet metal dangling from its frame and damaged a neighbor’s trailer.
“I thought it unusual that a fire in such a densely populated area was in such an advanced stage,” Lt. Mark Keifer wrote in his report following the fire.
Janson told investigators that masked men broke into his trailer, assaulted him, threw gasoline around the trailer and started the fire.
The mobile home park, which rented the trailer to Janson, collected $9,000 from its insurance company, Olson said. Heat and smoke from the blaze also caused $1,000 worth of damage to the trailer behind Janson’s.
A few weeks earlier, fire gutted another trailer occupied by Janson at the same mobile home park. The cause of that fire was never determined, Olson said.
, DataTimes