ESPERANZA ARSON TRIAL BEGINS

Trial starts in wildfire that killed 5 firefighters
Raymond Lee Oyler faces 45 counts over 2006 Esperanza wildfire that killed five firefighters.
RIVERSIDE CA– A prosecutor told a jury Thursday that a 38-year-old defendant was “a man bent on destruction” who unleashed disaster by igniting a wind-driven wildfire that killed five U.S. Forest Service firefighters in 2006.

The characterization of defendant Raymond Lee Oyler was given to the nine-woman, three-man jury by Riverside County Deputy District Attorney Michael Hestrin as opening statements began in the potential death-penalty trial.

Oyler has pleaded not guilty to 45 counts including murder and arson. Defense attorney Mark McDonald was to respond to the prosecution statement later.

Oyler, an auto mechanic, claims he had been watching his 7-month-old baby at home and then went to a casino when the Esperanza fire began on Oct. 26, 2006, as fierce Santa Ana winds roared through Southern California.

The crew of San Bernardino National Forest Engine 57 was overrun by flames while defending an unoccupied, isolated home in the San Jacinto Mountains about 90 miles east of Los Angeles.

Prosecutors say Oyler is a serial arsonist who set 23 blazes, including the Esperanza fire, in 2006 by using red-tipped wooden matches bundled around a cigarette with rubber bands or duct tape.

However, Superior Court Judge W. Charles Morgan dealt the prosecution a blow last week when he ruled jurors will only hear evidence tying Oyler to two other fires.

Hestrin has said more extensive evidence would be presented at the trial but declined to elaborate.

McDonald, however, wants to admit into evidence that a Forest Service investigation found another possible arsonist - a firefighter who worked in the area when the suspicious fires started.

The Esperanza fire was reported at 1:11 a.m. PDT. According to a report summarizing Oyler’s interviews with police, he told investigators that after watching the baby at home in the city of Banning he went gambling at the Morongo Indian Casino &Spa, then stopped at a gas station before heading toward the Esperanza fire to watch it.

The fire began on a hillside in the town of Cabazon and spread quickly from a valley floor up the north side of the mountains to the widely dispersed rural community of Twin Pines at an elevation of about 4,000 feet.

Engine 57’s crew was overrun about 7:15 a.m. as they defended a home perched at the top of a steep drainage. Three firefighters died there and a fourth died soon after at a hospital. The fifth died five days later, the same day Oyler was arrested.

Some 10,000 people attended the memorial service for Jason McKay, 27; Jess McLean, 27; Daniel Hoover-Najera, 20; Mark Loutzenhiser, 43, and Cerda, 23.

The blaze also destroyed 34 homes and 20 outbuildings.

From:Orange County Register
Contact the writer: jcassidy@ocregister.com or 714-445-6694