Wednesday, March 4, 2015

MAN GETS 5 YEARS IN HASH OIL EXPLOSION, FIRE AT HIS NORTH SPOKANE, WASHINGTON APARTMENT IN JANUARY 2014; HE ALSO OWES $325K IN RESTITUTION TO PROPERTY OWNERS AND SPOKANE FD
















MARCH 4, 2015

SPOKANE, WASHINGTON

Donnivan Whitcher told a federal judge Tuesday the explosion caused by a marijuana extraction method at his north Spokane apartment in January 2014 was an accident.

“I didn’t mean to hurt anybody,” Whitcher said before U.S. District Court Judge Thomas Rice sentenced him to five years in federal prison.

The explosion displaced at least one resident, and several others reported injuries shortly after the blast that scorched Whitcher’s unit in the Center Court Apartments at 7007 N. Nevada Street, Spokane, WA.

Whitcher pleaded guilty in November to manufacturing hash oil, a marijuana byproduct made by drawing THC – the psychoactive element for the drug – from the plant using a chemical. Whitcher used butane and was smoking the substance from a bong when the butane ignited, causing an explosion. His 2-year-old daughter and his girlfriend, also in the apartment, were uninjured.
But George Samuel, Whitcher’s next-door neighbor, says he continues to suffer health problems as a result, including stress, anxiety and depression.

“I feel sorry for Donnivan,” Samuel, who served in the Army during the Korean War and attempted to extinguish the fire when he first saw the flames, said after the hearing. “This is emotional for me. He’s not the first to do this, and he won’t be the last.”

Earlier this year, the Spokane City Council created an ordinance that requires legal hash oil producers to seek inspection by the Spokane Fire Department. The state’s recreational marijuana laws require hash oil to be produced in a “closed loop” system, which keeps oxygen and open flames from igniting the flammable gases that can be used to produce the oil. 

Those regulations were written to avoid explosions like the one that occurred in Whitcher’s apartment and the explosion that ripped open a car in the Garland neighborhood in August 2013. Jacob Sayman, the car’s driver, pleaded guilty to attempted assault and drug manufacturing charges earlier this year before a Spokane County Superior Court judge and received no jail time.

But Whitcher pleaded guilty to a federal charge that carries a mandatory prison sentence of five years. Whitcher also must pay close to $325,000 in restitution to the property owners and the Spokane Fire Department.

Rice, who presided over the trial of three Stevens County marijuana growers found guilty on Tuesday of manufacturing 50 to 100 marijuana plants, told Whitcher he’d give a stiffer sentence if he could.

“I don’t consider this an accident at all,” Rice said, adding, “I scoff at people who say drugs don’t hurt people.”

Several members of Whitcher’s family, including his now-wife, who was present that evening, spoke on his behalf, wiping tears from their eyes as they said he was a good person who didn’t mean to hurt anyone.

“Donnivan made a mistake,” said Whitcher’s wife, Kali Whitcher. “He knows that.

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MAN PLEADS GUILTY IN HASH OIL EXPLOSION

NOVEMBER 21, 2014

SPOKANE, WASHINGTON

A 25-year-old man faces five years in federal prison after pleading guilty to sparking an explosion in January while trying to make hash oil.

Donnivan L. Whitcher told a federal judge Thursday he and a friend were using butane to leach the psychoactive element of marijuana from plants on Jan. 27 when a propane torch ignited vapor. The explosion in his kitchen at the Center Court apartments on East Cozza Drive injured two neighbors and a firefighter. 
At least one apartment resident was displaced. 

The 2-year-old daughter of Whitcher’s girlfriend watched TV a few feet away, but wasn’t injured in the blast. 

The explosion is one of several across the country where marijuana users, seeking a more potent high, endangered children by the use of combustible butane in making hash oil. 

A similar explosion occurred in the Garland neighborhood in August 2013, when a man attempted to light a cigarette while using PVC pipe and a coffee filter to create hash oil, according to court records. The car he was driving exploded and he faces assault and drug charges after his 3-year-old daughter was injured in the blast. His jury trial is scheduled for January 2015 in Spokane County Superior Court. 

Whitcher was arrested in June, five months after the explosion. The man who was helping him manufacture the hash oil, Eric Glatzmaier, told investigators with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives that Whitcher had been producing hash oil and selling it for a few months before the explosion.
Glatzmaier met Whitcher the night of the blast at a Wal-Mart. The two then traveled back to the apartment. Glatzmaier told investigators the smell of butane in the apartment was “very strong” when he arrived, according to court documents.

Glatzmaier said the two smoked hash oil residue in the kitchen from a bong while Whitcher’s girlfriend and the 2-year-old watched TV in the other room. The girlfriend yelled at Whitcher multiple times that he was going to burn the house down, according to Glatzmaier and neighbors interviewed by fire investigators.

The two neighbors injured by the blast suffered from heart and breathing problems shortly after the explosion. One of the men was treated for smoke inhalation and died of complications related to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease two months after the blast. Investigators have not been able to determine if the explosion made his condition worse, according to court records.
Whitcher pleaded guilty to a single count of malicious use of fire Thursday, a charge that carries a mandatory minimum of five years in federal prison. He has no other felony criminal history and has been released on monitoring ahead of his sentencing, tentatively scheduled for March.

His attorney, Amy Rubin, told U.S. District Court Judge Thomas O. Rice that Whitcher has cooperated in all aspects of the investigation and that he is working at a fast-food restaurant in Spokane Valley to support his girlfriend, who is now his wife, and the toddler. Rubin said Whitcher’s crime was an accident.

No one else has been charged in connection with the explosion, and the U.S. attorney’s office agreed to dismiss the second criminal count of endangering a human life while manufacturing a controlled substance. Under federal law, marijuana is still outlawed for all uses. 

Washington laws allow for the manufacture of hash oil marijuana extracts, but only in pre-approved industrial areas using “closed-loop” systems that keep the butane away from fire sources.

Damage from the fire has not been officially calculated, but prosecutors believe that figure is more than $350,000, according to court documents. Under federal law, Whitcher is required to pay restitution in addition to his prison sentence.