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Prosecutor: Arsonist tried to burn down casinos

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A Poway man accused of setting five brush fires in East and North County in 2014 and 2015 did so because he hated two Indian casinos and wanted to see them burn to the ground, a prosecutor said Friday.

Jonathan Cohen, 45, admitted setting the fires to a fellow jail inmate, Deputy District Attorney Andrew Aguilar said Friday during opening statements in Cohen’s arson trial in El Cajon Superior Court.

“One of the things he said to him was I hate casinos and wanted to see them burn down,” Aguilar said.

Cohen’s lawyer called the prosecution’s witness a lying snitch.

Cohen is accused of setting five small fires: four along Lake Wohlford Road in Valley Center near Valley View Casino, and one along state Route 67 near Slaughterhouse Canyon Road as he was returning home from Barona Resort & Casino.

Prosecutors plan to present evidence that they believe links Cohen to three other fires — all along or near Wildcat Canyon Road, near the Barona casino — though the defendant has not been charged in those blazes.

None of the fires grew larger than three acres. In some cases, burned casino matchbooks were found at the points of origin.

Cohen faces up to 11 years in prison if convicted.

Court documents show Cal Fire investigators had been watching Cohen for nearly a year prior to his arrest last summer, and that they suspect he may be responsible for many more fires dating back a decade.

Investigators believe Cohen would gamble at the casinos and then set fires as he drove back home along the two semi-rural roads, according to the documents and Aguilar.

Aguliar said evidence including video from Cal Fire surveillance cameras, a license plate reader, and in some cases GPS tracking devices on two of Cohen’s vehicles, will show he was in the immediate vicinity when the small brush fires broke out at all times of the day or night.

The prosecutor said information gleaned from the Barona and Valley View casinos also places Cohen at the gambling establishments prior to the fires.

Cohen’s attorney, Deputy Public Defender David Thompson, told the jury all the evidence against his client is circumstantial.

“About, approximately, at or near, maybe, might have been, could have been — those are words you’re going to hear repeatedly at this trial with regard to where Mr. Cohen’s vehicle was in a range of time.” Thompson said. “You’re not going to hear any specificity with regards to time ... or location.”

He said the jail informant is a liar who has been paid for testimony against other accused criminals in the past and who requested a reduction in his current sentence — which was not granted — in exchange for testifying against Cohen.

Thompson said the informant most likely learned details of Cohen’s case from newspaper articles or Cohen’s police report, which he could have seen in jail.

Aguilar told the jury numerous suspicious items were recovered from Cohen’s car and home following his arrest, including many matchbooks and lighters. He said an examination of Cohen’s computer showed Google searches “expressing extreme hatred toward the Indian casinos here in San Diego County.”

Thompson said Cohen is a cigarette smoker and occasional methamphetamine smoker, which easily explains the matches and lighters. He also referred to his client as a “gambling addict” who visited casinos in the county on a daily basis. He said if Cohen was an arsonist who hated casinos he would have been setting fires every day.

Aguilar pointed out that the fires near Barona stopped last year after Cohen “self-expelled,” meaning he told the casino to ban him for his own good. The next spring, at the beginning of fire season, the fires began in Valley Center after Cohen began frequenting the Valley View Casino.

“Like a lost puppy, wildfire seems to follow Jonathan Cohen around wherever he goes,” Aguilar said. “The evidence in the case will show you that Jonathan Cohen is a serial arsonist.”

The trial, being held in the courtroom of Judge Evan Kirvin, is expected to last about two weeks.

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