A 39-year-old man has been charged with murder in a fire that killed two women in Hollywood last month, along with arson for a series of other blazes that he allegedly intentionally set, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office announced Wednesday.
Jovan Lamar Duverne is scheduled to be arraigned April 8 in a downtown Los Angeles courtroom on two counts of murder stemming from the Feb. 4 deaths of Maria Del Consuelo Alarcon-Valdez, 76, and Yolanda Honda, 82, who were sisters.
The murder charges include the special circumstance allegation of multiple murders, along with sentencing enhancements related to a prior arson conviction, according to the District Attorney’s Office, which will decide later whether to seek the death penalty against Duverne.
The two women died after Duverne set fire to their home around 2 a.m., authorities said.
He is also facing 11 felony counts of arson involving a string of fires at 10 locations across Hollywood between Jan. 26 and Feb. 4 that were allegedly set using a handheld torch-style lighter, with the defendant walking between locations lighting rubbish and trying to enter buildings, according to the District Attorney’s Office.
Duverne was arrested near Hollywood Boulevard and Wilton Place later the day of the deadly fire, prosecutors said.
He remains behind bars without bail, jail records show.
“Setting fires anywhere is reckless and extraordinarily dangerous, but deliberately igniting multiple fires in a residential community shows a shocking disregard for human life,” District Attorney Nathan Hochman said in a statement announcing the charges. “We allege this defendant went on a dangerous arson spree across Hollywood that ultimately claimed the lives of two elderly sisters inside their home. Our hearts are with their loved ones as they mourn this devastating loss.”
The case remains under investigation by the Los Angeles Police Department’s Robbery-Homicide Division, with assistance from the Los Angeles City Fire Department’s Arson Counter Terrorism Section.