Murder Case Tape Recounts Argument

A North Hollywood man charged with murdering his girlfriend by setting her afire in August explained his actions in a statement taped by authorities a few hours after the incident.

In a recording played Tuesday in San Fernando Municipal Court, Stephen Cole, 37, charged with the Aug. 14 murder of Mary Anne Mahoney, 43, told arson investigators that he and Mahoney got into an argument at a neighborhood bar the night of the fire and that he decided to walk home.

When he returned to the couple’s home about 10 p.m., Cole said he was met with Mahoney’s angry taunts. “I had been drinking all day, and I just went berserk,” Cole said.

He poured most of the contents of a quart gasoline container on the bedroom floor and then doused Mahoney, while she lay passed out on their bed, he said on the tape. She was “drunker than a . . . hoot owl,” he said.

“I said ‘Here, you bitch, I hope you . . . burn,’ ” he said.

Mahoney suffered third-degree burns over more than half of her body and lived for 2 weeks before dying of massive organ failure, court documents said.

Buildings Periled

The fire damaged the couple’s rented home in the 5800 block of Whitnall Highway and threatened nearby apartment buildings.

“I don’t know what I was thinking of because there’s people living next door, and they have kids and everything,” said Cole, who also is charged with arson.

Cole said the owner of the house had once offered to pay him to “burn the place down” so that he could build a multi-unit apartment building on the property.

When the interview with investigators began, Cole repeatedly asked to have his blood-alcohol level tested. Cole said he drank about six beers between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. before going to the bar. He did not say how much he consumed at the bar.

The results of two blood-alcohol tests produced 0.25 and 0.26 blood-alcohol readings, according to court testimony. A person is legally intoxicated with a blood-alcohol reading of 0.10.

The 30-minute tape was played before Municipal Court Judge Gregg Marcus during a hearing to determine if Cole should be ordered to stand trial for the crimes. Marcus will make his decision when the hearing concludes Friday. Because the murder occurred during arson, a serious felony, Cole could face a death sentence.