Olathe ? It wasn’t revenge or money that caused a former Kansas University student to go on an arson spree earlier this year in Johnson and Douglas counties, according to courtroom testimony Monday.

Instead, the picture that emerged at a preliminary hearing for David R. Jay was that of a pyromaniac with suicidal tendencies who chose targets of opportunity, set fire to them with Wal-Mart fireplace starter logs and camp fuel, then sat back to watch them burn.

“He simply wanted to see a fire,” testified Tod Paske, a police detective in Olathe who traveled March 16 to Fontana, Calif., where he interviewed Jay after the 24-year-old drove across the country and turned himself in to police there.

After a daylong hearing Monday, Johnson County District Judge Peter Ruddick found there was probable cause to try Jay for setting 14 fires in early March in Johnson County. He’ll be arraigned July 7 on those charges.

Jay also is suspected of setting three fires in March in Lawrence: at a garden store, a dental office and Watson Library on the KU campus. He hasn’t been charged in Douglas County pending the outcome of the Johnson County cases. One reason prosecutors have cited is that if they wait until Jay has several felony convictions, he’ll face more time for the fire at Watson Library — arguably the most serious fire because of the number of people inside.

During the interview in California, Jay described how he bought starter logs at Wal-Mart for 33 cents each, Paske testified. Sometimes he placed them carefully and sprayed the area with fuel; other times he tossed them.

Jay chose targets based on a number of factors, including his ability to escape and the potential for a spectacular fire, Paske said. Jay knew which businesses had wooden roofs and were likely to burn if he tossed a starter log onto the roof, Paske testified.

Jay said he visited one bank three times and tried to burn it, Paske said. After one of the fires, he read in a newspaper that it was ruled an electrical fire.

In the case of a check-cashing business, Jay said he thought “no one would miss it except for maybe the owner,” Paske testified.

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The most destructive fire caused more than $7 million damage to an unoccupied senior citizens home under construction in Olathe. In that case, Paske testified, Jay said he tossed some starter logs through the front door because it didn’t open more than a foot wide. He went to a nearby grocery parking lot and waited about an hour for fire crews to arrive.

Jay said he was “frustrated and annoyed” by the scale of the fire that resulted, Paske testified.

“His statement was, ‘I was just thinking that should be a humongous fire,'” Paske testified.

So Jay went back. Hours after firefighters left the scene unsecured, he walked back in — this time, the door opened all the way — and placed several starter logs carefully between wall studs, Paske testified.

Jay said he’d been feeling suicidal at the time of the fires, Paske said. Jay drove across the country and turned himself in because he thought police might be looking for him and because he was having financial trouble and was about to be evicted, Paske testified.

The prosecutors, Johnson County Assistant Dist. Attys. Lannie Ornburn and Rick Guinn, called nearly 30 witnesses, including fire investigators, business managers and people who discovered the fires.

Jay, wearing a blue-and-white striped Johnson County Jail uniform, didn’t speak during the hearing. His parents sat in the front row but declined comment.

Defense attorneys Debra Snider and Alex McCauley of Olathe said afterward they were pleased Ruddick downgraded one of the arson charges from a level 6 felony to a less-severe level 7 felony. Ruddick found the senior citizens home didn’t meet the criteria for the higher charge because it wasn’t being used as a dwelling.