A 57-year-old man who was prosecuted in a separate arson case was charged today with setting a four-alarm that caused extensive damage to the historic San Gabriel Mission last July 11.
The July 2020 blaze scorched the art-covered walls and hallowed roof of the church at a historic Spanish mission in Southern California.
The charred rooftop of the 215-year old church at Mission San Gabriel in Southern California, damaged by a July 11 fire, is visible from the trellis lining the entrance to the mission’s courtyard. (Courthouse News photo / Martin Macias Jr.)
LOS ANGELES (CN) The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office charged a 57-year-old man Tuesday with sparking a fire last summer that badly damaged the historic Mission San Gabriel church in Southern California.
Prosecutors say John David Corey broke into the 250-year-old Mission San Gabriel on July 11, 2020, and set off a fire in the church that began to swell after 4:20 a.m.
Corey, described as being from the San Gabriel Valley region, was initially arrested and sentenced to three years for a separate case in San Gabriel that occurred after the fire at the mission, according to the San Gabriel Fire Department. t was during this separate incident that investigators deemed Mr. Corey a person of interest in the Mission San Gabriel case, according to a statement issued by the SGFD. After a thorough investigation, investigators determined that Corey was responsible for the fire at the Mission San Gabriel.
The early morning fire caused extensive damage July 11 to the nearly 250-year-old San Gabriel Mission, a landmark in the history of Southern California that contains artifacts dating to the late 1700s. The building s floors, walls and domed ceiling are original.
Man charged in San Gabriel Mission blaze that destroyed rooftop of historic church
John David Corey faces two felony counts of arson of an inhabited structure and one count each of arson during a state of emergency, first-degree residential burglary and possession of flammable material, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office says.
The interior of the San Gabriel Mission is seen in the aftermath of a morning fire, July 11, 2020, in San Gabriel, California. The fire destroyed the rooftop and most of the interior of the 249-year-old church that was undergoing renovation. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)
May 4, 2021
SAN GABRIEL, Calif. (RNS) A man has been charged in connection with a fire last July that destroyed the rooftop of a church at the historic San Gabriel Mission, the fourth in a series of missions across California that Catholic priest Junipero Serra founded during the Spanish colonization era.