Death penalty sought in Esperanza fire

District attorney to seek death for a man accused of setting the wildfire that killed an Orange County man and four other firefighters.

The Associated Press

RIVERSIDE – Riverside County District Attorney Rod Pacheco said Wednesday he will pursue the death penalty against the man accused of setting a wildfire last fall that killed five U.S. Forest Service firefighters.

One of the men, Pablo Cerda, lived in Fountain Valley.

Pacheco said he decided to pursue death against Raymond Lee Oyler after consulting with the family members of the five firefighters and reviewing all the evidence with the investigative team. He said several factors, including Oyler's past criminal record and the severe losses suffered by the community, influenced his decision.

Oyler, a 36-year-old auto mechanic, is charged with five counts of first-degree murder, 17 counts of using an incendiary device and 23 counts of arson between May 16 and Oct. 26, 2006, the day the deadly Esperanza Fire broke out. He was arrested Oct. 31 after the wind-whipped fire raced through the foothills near Banning.

Oyler was convicted in 2001 on a drug possession charge and has had other run-ins with the law in both California and Missouri.

"I considered what I personally considered to be an incredible and callous disregard to the safety of the firefighters who would respond to the fires over a period of time," Pacheco said. "He expressed on numerous occasions that he wanted to burn the mountain down."

Oyler's attorney, Mark McDonald, did not immediately return a call for comment.

Pacheco, in a phone interview with The Associated Press, said family members of the fallen firefighters weren't in agreement about whether to pursue the death penalty.

"Some of the families urged me most directly to seek death, other families were ambivalent and others still are opposed the death penalty in spite of the loss of a loved one," he said.

During a preliminary hearing two months ago, Oyler's fiancee and cousin testified that he had boasted about lighting fires in the Banning Pass area during the summer months. Crystal Breazile, however, denied that her fiance set the blaze that claimed the firefighters' lives.

Breazile, who has a young daughter with Oyler, said she and Oyler were watching televised reports of an arson wildfire in late May when the auto mechanic told her he had started the blaze.

Breazile, who said she threatened to leave him if he didn't stop setting fires, was called by prosecutors as a hostile witness during the hearing.

Oyler's second cousin also testified that Oyler told her he spent the night of Oct. 21 casing a mountain in the Banning area for a good spot to set a fire.

He also said he had set "some small fires" around the Banning area on Oct. 22, a few days before the deadly blaze, to try to create a diversion so he could get his pit bull out of the pound, cousin Jill Frame testified.

Prosecutors allege that Oyler set the fires in the Banning Pass area using several variations of devices made of wooden stick matches and Marlboro cigarettes.

Investigators have said that they were able to match Oyler's DNA with samples from cigarette butts used to start fires on June 9 and June 10, but not to the device used to start the Esperanza blaze.

Firefighters Jason McKay, 27; Jess McLean, 27; Daniel Hoover-Najera, 20; Mark Loutzenhiser, 43, and Cerda, 23, were overrun by flames on Oct. 26 while protecting a home. McKay, McLean and Hoover-Najera died at the scene. Loutzenhiser died several hours later and Cerda died several days later. Some 10,000 people attended their memorial service.

Court records from neighboring San Bernardino County show Oyler was convicted in September 2001 of possession of a controlled substance, and pleaded guilty to taking a vehicle without the owner's consent in 1995.

In Joplin, Mo., police and court records show Oyler had several traffic violations and other mostly minor run-ins with the law from 1997 through 1999. The most severe was a 1999 misdemeanor count of violating a protection order won by his wife by entering her apartment while she was out. A warrant issued in the case was never served. Jasper County circuit court records show Oyler's wife divorced him in 2001

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