Did squabble over family trust lead to arson in Oceano?

July 15, 2018

By Cal Coast Times Staff

An Oceano man involved in a squabble over a family trust allegedly used a blowtorch to set fire to a home his mother, Oceano Community Services District Director Lori Angello, owns in Oceano. [Cal Coast Times]

Several years ago, David Angello began posting pages of a family trust on Facebook that showed most of his parents’ assets were being left to his brother, a captain with the Five Cities Fire Authority. At that time, a home at 1630 Laguna Drive was slated to go to David Angello, according to the trust.

In Jan. 2018, Lori Angello began making improvements to the Laguna Drive home with plans to put it on the market, plans that allegedly angered David Angello, according to court records.

“When David found out about my intention to sell the Laguna house he said he would burn it down if I put it on the market,” Lori Angello said in a declaration to the court.

In March, she listed the vacant Laguna Drive house for sale.

At about 4 a.m. on May 4, David Angello allegedly used a blowtorch to set fire to the home. Five Cities firefighters extinguished the blaze with help from Cal Fire.

On June 1, David Angello broke into the Laguna Drive house. Lori Angello responded by asking sheriff’s deputies to remove him from the home.

Deputies arrived with a helicopter and a K9 and attempted persuade him to leave the residence.

David Angello responded by threatening to kill the K9 with a crowbar if deputies entered the home, according to court documents. Deputies then informed Lori Angello they would not enter the home and suggested she get a retraining order against her son, which she filed on June 6.

“I am scared of David and afraid that if I leave the property or if I visit the property that he will become violent and harm me,” Lori Angello wrote. She has not returned requests for comment.

On June 29, the court issued a warrant for David Angello stating he did “willfully, unlawfully, and maliciously set fire to and burn and cause to be burned a structure and forest land located at 1630 Laguna, Oceano.”

On July 7 shortly after 3 a.m., one of David Angello’s relatives called 9-1-1 to report he was smashing windows from inside a home on the 1300 block of Norswing Drive. Before deputies arrived, David Angello left the property.

However, he returned armed with a BB gun and again threatened officers, according to the sheriff’s department.

During the more than five-hour standoff, David Angello posted on Facebook.

“The cops are at my house again threatening me and they want me to come outside so they can jump me,” he posted on Facebook at 5:23 a.m.

At about 10:30 a.m., deputies shot David Angello with rubber bullets and a K9 bit him.

After he was treated for the dog bite, deputies booked him into the San Luis Obispo County Jail on charges of arson, unauthorized entry into a residence, use of a deadly weapon (the blowtorch), resisting arrest, assault with a deadly weapon (the BB gun), and vandalism.

In an odd twist, Five Cities Fire Authority Chief Steve Lieberman told Cal Coast Times that David Angello had not been arrested for arson for the fire at the Laguna Drive house, which he claimed was still under investigation. It is unclear if Lieberman is unaware that David Angello had been charged with arson or if he is attempting to protect a public official and a fire department captain from scrutiny.