Man Who Attacked His Canyon Lake Neighbors Sentenced

SOUTHWEST RIVERSIDE COUNTY, CA — A Canyon Lake man who harassed and attacked his neighbors, setting fire to one's house for reasons never understood, was sentenced Wednesday to nearly 15 years in state prison.

David Brian Harry, 46, perpetrated the attacks, roughly nine months apart, targeting two residences in the 28000 block of Yosemite Place.

He pleaded guilty last month to attempted murder and arson, with sentence-enhancing allegations of using an ignition device to commit arson and committing a crime while on bail, just as his trial was set to get underway at the Banning Justice Center. Seven related felony charges were dismissed as part of the plea agreement with the Riverside County District Attorney's Office.

Superior Court Judge Jorge Hernandez certified the terms and imposed the sentence stipulated by the prosecution and defense.

According to sheriff's investigators, the defendant became obsessed with the couple living immediately adjacent to him for reasons unclear.

Trouble began on April 7, 2017, when a phone line common to the defendant's and victims' property was damaged, enraging Harry. The following day, the defendant spat on the husband and brandished a baseball bat at him, according to a trial brief filed by Deputy District Attorney Timothy Cross.

Soon afterward, Harry parked his pickup in the victims' driveway and only moved it after deputies were called to the location and ordered him to do so. Cross said 20 minutes after the patrolmen left, the defendant poured gasoline on the man's driveway and then set a fire in his own Jeep Cherokee, rolling it toward the victims' home.

According to the prosecutor, the Jeep came down the driveway but veered off into a dirt hill and down an embankment, crashing into a neighboring house's garage and golf cart. When deputies returned to the location, they found the Jeep's accelerator pinned down by a "cane-type object" and a "burning bandana" on the driver's side of the SUV, which had "multiple gasoline containers in it," according to Cross.

Harry was jailed and remained behind bars for weeks until his attorney argued successfully for a reduction in his $1 million bail, at which point he posted bond and was released.

The homeowner and his family, whose names were withheld, obtained a restraining order against the defendant, after which he did not harass them further, according to the prosecution.

However, another neighbor began having strange encounters with Harry around Thanksgiving 2017, Cross said.

He said the woman suspected the defendant was stalking her, sometimes standing near her front door as she returned home from work. One evening, she found a pentagram drawn on her door, with a burning cigarette stuck in it. The next morning, writing with black duct tape appeared on the side of the defendant's house facing the woman's residence that said "F you Fink," according to Cross.

The following week, the victim found the front of her home damaged and the words "F U rat" spray-painted on her driveway, the prosecutor said.

On Jan. 3, 2018, the defendant drove his pickup into the side of her residence, impacting it with enough force that it shook. When the woman stepped outside, she encountered Harry standing next to his vehicle, and he shouted, "F you, bitch. This is my house. This is my property," Cross said.

"The defendant then lit a road flare and went to the side of her house," according to Cross, who said the woman "then ran inside, retrieved a firearm and went back outside (and) confronted the defendant with the gun, telling him that if he didn't get off of the property, she would shoot him. The defendant responded by lighting another road flare and going to the other side of the house."

The woman then went back inside and discovered that the curtains and carpet were on fire, according to the prosecutor, who said she extinguished the flames and was not injured.

According to sheriff's Sgt. Curt Harris, the defendant jumped into his pickup and sped away, but was eventually arrested in the area of Featherly Park in Yorba Linda after a brief struggle.

He had no documented prior felony convictions in Riverside County.

— By City News Service