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.
//----------------------------------------------//
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.