Man sentenced in firebombings
A man convicted of ordering a series of firebombings at the homes of neighbors and lawyers involved in the loss of his residence in San Francisco’s Richmond District has been sentenced to 18 years in federal prison.
David Jah, 47, of Concord was convicted by a jury in May of conspiring to commit arson in attacks on three homes in San Francisco, Danville and Lafayette in October and November 2018. Prosecutors said he was also responsible for six firebombings and two driveby shootings in San Francisco, Danville and Oakland starting in March 2016.
No one was seriously injured in the attacks. Jah, in federal custody since 2019, was sentenced Monday by U.S. District Judge William Alsup, who took the unusual step of imposing a term that was three years more than the 15year sentence recommended by federal prosecutors. Jah’s attorneys, saying he suffered from mental illness, asked for a term of between 10 and 12½ years.
Two men Jah hired for the later attacks, Kristofer AlexisClark and Dennis Williams, have pleaded guilty and await sentencing. Both testified against Jah at his trial.
The attacks followed Jah’s unsuccessful 10year effort to remain in the Richmond District home after the deaths of his mother and aunt, the legal owners. After he was evicted in 2016, prosecutors said, a Molotov cocktail was thrown through the window of a lawyer involved in the sale of the home, and bullets were fired through windows of a neighbor and another lawyer in the home transaction.
The Oakland home of Kathy Pippins, Jah’s cousin and the administrator of his aunt’s estate, was destroyed by a fire in May 2017. Pippins and her daughter escaped uninjured. The Oakland Fire Department did not identify a cause of the blaze, but prosecutors said the address was found the next day on a list of Jah’s “perceived enemies,” with an X drawn over the address.
Later targets included other neighbors and attorneys, one of them James Hannawalt, a deputy San Francisco city attorney who successfully defended the Police Department against a lawsuit by Jah’s son.
“When Mr. Jah was unable to achieve his objectives in court, he turned to violence. That is never acceptable” acting U.S. Attorney Stephanie Hinds said in a statement.
In a court filing, defense attorney Randy Sue Pollock said Jah was guilty of serious crimes but had descended into “a morass of psychotic conduct” after his mother’s death and his battle to save the family home. Jah plans to appeal his conviction.