The Associated Press State & Local Wire
May 17, 2005, Tuesday, BC cycle
SECTION: State and Regional
LENGTH: 165 words
HEADLINE: Trial opens for man accused of arson
DATELINE: OLATHE, Kan.
A lawyer for a man charged with setting 14 fires in Johnson County described
her client as a "very sick young man" during opening statements in the arson
trial of David Ryan Jay.
Jay, 24, of Olathe, is charged with 13 counts of arson and one count of
aggravated arson, which involves a fire set to an occupied building.
No injuries resulted from the fires, which were set between March 7 and March
11, 2004. The worst of the fires caused about $8 million in damage to a senior
center under construction in Olathe.
Defense attorney Deb Snider said Monday that Jay suffered from paranoid
delusions of enslavement by a "new world order."
"This is the filter through which David Jay sees the world," Snider told a
Johnson County District Court jury.
Assistant District Attorney Rick Guinn told the jury that Jay gave authorities
details that only a person involved in the crimes would know.
Jay also tried to avoid detection by choosing secluded locations, Guinn said.
