More Details...

http://www.ksffa.com/May%20Firenews/attorney_jay.htm
Kansas State Firefighters Association - Dedicated to the Safety and Education of the Kansas Firefighters -

Attorney: Jay's mental illnesses distort his reality
By Sarah St.John,The Olathe News - May 17, 2005

Defense attorney Debra Snider didn't deny her client's involvement in a string of fires in Olathe and Johnson County last year.Instead, she said he thought a space ship took off Sunday from where he is staying at the jail near New Century AirCenter.

Snider and attorney Alex McCauley are representing David Ryan Jay, the 24-year-old Olathe man charged with 14 counts of arson relating to a series of fires set March 7 through 11, 2004. Jay turned himself in to California authorities four days after the last fire. He has pleaded not guilty to all counts. His trial began Monday, and Snider delivered the defense's opening statement.

"Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, we're all in danger of being housed in enslavement camps by the New World Order," Snider said.

This powerful group includes President George Bush's administration, space aliens and other entities and is tied to new construction. Snider said this was Jay's view of reality. She did not deny or confirm his involvement in the fires, but focused on his distorted perception of the world. She said he was a paranoid schizophrenic and suffered from Asperger's syndrome, a high-functioning form of autism.

Snider said Jay suffered from delusions, including that his parents tried to poison him, that cell phones are tracking devices for the New World Order and that his roommate was on the FBI's 10 most wanted list.

"This is the filter through which David Jay sees the world, and it's a scary filter," she said.
Snider said the defense would call a noted psychologist to testify to that fact.

"Dr. (Gerald) Vandenberg is going to tell you that David Jay is a very sick young man who would benefit tremendously from psychiatric treatment and medication," she said.

Assistant district attorney Rick Guinn, the lead prosecutor on the case, said in his opening statement that Jay seemed to know what he was doing. After he outlined when and where the 14 fires took place, Guinn explained how Jay drove to Fontana, Calif., and called 911 from a convenience store March 15, 2004.

"He was very coherent, understandable and intelligent" in speaking with the dispatcher, Guinn said.
The tape of the 911 call will be played later this week. When Fontana officers arrived to the convenience store to interview Jay, Guinn said, Jay told them details about the fires only a person responsible for setting them would know, such as the type of accelerant used and where on the structures the fires started.

Olathe detectives flew to California the next day to question Jay. Guinn said Jay put parameters on the interview, refusing to provide a written statement or be tape-recorded. During the interview, Guinn said, the calm and coherent Jay told detectives why he started the fires. Jay said he was at a low point in his life because he recently lost two jobs, was having trouble paying bills and was facing eviction from his apartment. As he was shopping at the Olathe Wal-Mart one evening, "things just built up," Guinn quoted Jay saying in that interview. Guinn said Jay purchased 33-cent starter logs at the store and started using them to set random fires.

"He made intentional efforts to elude police," Guinn said. "He picked certain locations to avoid detection."
Jay is charged with setting fires at multiple houses under construction, two banks, a loan business and the Olathe Senior Center, which also was under construction. Eight of the fires with which he is charged happened in Olathe.

Before Jay arrived in Fontana, Calif., Guinn said, he told detectives he stopped in Albuquerque, N.M., to dispose of the starter logs and other fire-starting paraphernalia. When detectives asked him why, Jay replied, "because he knew he had to get rid of it," Guinn said.

Guinn said Jay was lucid and cognizant of what he was doing and could thoroughly remember what he did.
"This is an intelligent individual with a tremendous amount of recall," Guinn said. Testimony in the case will resume at 9 a.m. today.

Gwen Romine, KSFFA Webmaster - ksffa@earthlink.net
www.ksffa.com