LOS ANGELES – A 58-year-old man has pleaded no contest to igniting a huge inferno in downtown Los Angeles that destroyed a block of apartments under construction and heavily damaged nearby office buildings.
Dawud Abdulwali entered the plea Monday to a charge of arson of a structure, and he was immediately sentenced to 15 years in prison.
Deputy District Attorney Joy Roberts says the plea was negotiated.
The December 2014, blaze gutted the seven-story Da Vinci apartment complex and blew out windows in adjacent towers. Damage was estimated at $100 million.
A witness testified at a preliminary hearing that a week later, Abdulwali said he set the fire because he was angry about the August 2014 killing of Michael Brown, an unarmed black man, by a white police officer in Ferguson, Missouri.
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