A mysterious arson fire in a Hollywood neighborhood started small.
Burning bus benches and mattresses near houses and vehicles. One inside the elevator vestibule and the other in the parking garage.
Then on February 4, flames engulfed the Vista del Mar Avenue home of 76-year-old Maria “Chelo” Vazquez, who was recovering from hip surgery after a bad fall. His sister, 82-year-old Yolanda “Yola” Honda, was staying at home and helping him recover. It was midnight. Women died.
Now, authorities allege that the fire and 13 others in the area were started by 39-year-old Jovan DuVernay. Two criminal complaints filed by Los Angeles County prosecutors reveal what authorities said was an arson attack that ended with the women’s murders.
The attack shocked the neighborhood and friends and family mourned the sisters’ deaths. Officials have not released the cause of the fire. Records show DuVernay was previously convicted of arson in 2015, when she set fire to city property less than two miles from Vazquez’s home. As a result he was sentenced to one year of mental health counseling and jail. Most recently, he was charged with vandalism in January and in 2024 on separate counts of threatening someone with a weapon and falsely identifying himself to an officer. His current attorney declined to comment.
The Los Angeles County Medical Examiner determined that Vazquez died from burns and smoke inhalation. Fire officials said he died at the scene. Honda died four days later of complications related to burns and smoke inhalation. Both deaths were ruled murders.
A crowdfunding page Set up to cover funeral and memorial expenses, the search, medical and other costs of Vazquez’s dog Coco offered some heartbreaking details.
“As the flames engulfed the home, Chello was briefly seen on the porch,” the GoFundMe page said. “Her last words to a neighbor were a testament to her heart: ‘I need to go back and call my sister.’ Both of them did not come out of the house.”
Jovan DuVernay allegedly set fire to this home in the 1700 block of Vista Del Mar Avenue
(Myung J. Chun/Los Angeles Times)
Forty-three firefighters brought the blaze under control in just under 20 minutes, in the process firefighters pulled both women out of the home, Los Angeles Fire Department said.
A few hours later, DuVernay was arrested less than a mile away near the intersection of Hollywood Boulevard and North Wilton Avenue. Records show that when he was booked, it was not for the alleged arson on Vista Del Mar Avenue, but for a previous arson incident where authorities say he matched the description of the suspect.
DuVernay has now been charged with two counts of murder and 16 counts of arson in two separate criminal cases.
According to prosecutors, DuVernay’s arson spree began on January 26, nine days before the fatal fire.
The first of these incidents occurred at an apartment building on North Western Avenue, when DuVernay allegedly set fire to a mattress leaning against a light pole across the street, damaging both the pole and a car parked next to it, LAFD arson investigator Afara LaLinde said at DuVernay’s February 25 preliminary hearing. Then, DuVernay allegedly set fire to a closed trash can in the landing room, with video showing flames shooting from the trash can. He also set fire to a bag of clothes that a man had left in the parking lot the previous night to give to his family.
Shortly thereafter, LaLinde said, Duvernay tried to set fire to an emergency light in the elevator vestibule.
It was not immediately clear where DuVernay went after the fire. But on February 4, an LAPD officer identified DuVernay by the white hat she was wearing – it matched the one worn by the arson suspect at the apartment building.
While Duvernay was being held in custody, authorities apparently linked her to the fire that killed Vazquez and Honda and filed a second criminal case against her that included two counts of murder and 11 counts of arson and revoked her bail.
He has pleaded not guilty to the Jan. 27 fire, but has not yet entered a plea to the murder and arson charges filed March 11. He is due back in court on April 8. If convicted on all counts, He is eligible for life without parole or the death penalty.
“When someone sets a fire that endangers lives and destroys a community’s sense of safety, my office will pursue the most serious charges available and seek justice for the victims,” Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Nathan Hochman said in a media statement.
On a recent morning, birds were chirping and jumping from tree to tree under a clear blue morning sky as a man wearing a respirator and protective earmuffs worked on what was left of Vazquez’s property, which was fenced off from the road. The man declined to comment when contacted by the Times, as did several neighbors.
The exterior of the house was burned and distorted, the black interior was visible through large holes, and distorted metal hung from the windows. Freshly installed plywood partially concealed some of the damage.
According to a GoFundMe page for the family, the 115-year-old home, built on a sloping hill a five-minute walk from the Hollywood Walk of Fame, was the multi-generational foundation of the extended family’s presence in Southern California after relocating from Mexico — their “realization of the American dream for a young family who immigrated from Mexico decades ago.”
“It was a central and safe place for everyone to go whenever they needed to,” the family wrote. “Today that legacy of love and sacrifice has turned to ashes.”
