Covina : Acquittal in Fire Death

A Covina man has been acquitted on charges of murder and arson in relation to the death of his girlfriend’s 3-year-old daughter in a Covina house fire.

A Pomona Superior Court jury earlier this month found Dennis Marsh, 33, not guilty of second-degree murder and arson related to a March fire that killed Aubrey Cowger and destroyed Marsh’s Forestdale Avenue home, which was in foreclosure.

Prosecutors had argued that after electric power was cut off to his home, Marsh illegally rigged electrical wiring that short-circuited and sparked a fire in the living room. Deputy Dist. Atty. Mark Evans argued the act was so reckless and dangerous that it constituted malice.

However, jurors agreed with Marsh’s attorney, Ronald Whitenhill, that the wiring did not start the fire and it is impossible to determine what did.