Jurors in the Esperanza Fire trial have reached a verdict

Friday, March 6, 2009

Jurors in the Esperanza Fire trial have reached a verdict

Guilty! on Dozens of criminal counts including five counts of murder!

Raymond Lee Oyler was charged with five counts of first-degree murder, 23 counts of arson and 17 counts of using an incendiary device for fires set between May 16, 2006 and Oct. 26, 2006.

A jury has convicted Raymond Lee Oyler an auto mechanic of five murder counts in a 2006 California arson wildfire.
The Esperanza Fire overran a federal firefighting engine crew killing five.

The verdicts carry additional enhancements for murder during a felony and multiple murder.

Oyler also was convicted of 20 counts of arson and 17 counts of using an incendiary device in fires he set between May 16, 2006 and Oct. 26, 2006.

A mistrial was declared on three deadlocked counts of arson.

Esperanza Fire trial: Raymond Lee Oyler is convicted of settting the 2006 wildfire near Cabazon that killed five firefighters from San Bernardino National Forest Engine 57 .

Jurors announced guilty verdicts Friday on five murder counts in the case of a man accused of setting 23 Riverside County brush fires, including one that killed five firefighters.

At least a dozen current and retired fire personnel filled the left side of the courtroom. They were seated directly behind relatives of the five fallen USFS crew members.

Oyler, 38, faces a possible death sentence for causing the blaze that killed Capt. Mark Allen Loutzenhiser, 43, and firefighters Jason Robert McKay, 27, Jess Edward McLean, 27, Daniel Hoover-Najera, 20, and Pablo Cerda, 24, who were overcome by flames while defending a home near Twin Pines.

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

The five-man crew of San Bernardino National Forest Engine 57 were facing unpredictable winds on a remote mountain road north of Twin Pines on Oct. 26, 2006 when they were surrounded by fire. The swirling flames came down so quickly that that firefighters didn't have a chance to use their protective tents, U.S. Forest Service officials said.

Engine operator Jess McLean, 27, of Beaumont: assistant engine operator Jason McKay, 27, of Phelan; and firefighter Daniel Hoover-Najera, 20, of San Jacinto burned to death as flames raced over them.

Capt. Mark Loutzenhiser, 44, of Idyllwild and Cerda were airlifted to Arrowhead Regional Medical Center in Colton. Loutzenhiser died hours later.

Cerda suffered third-degree burns over 90 percent of his body. His lungs were badly damaged from breathing superheated smoke and air, said David T. Wong, chief of trauma and critical-care services at Arrowhead Regional Medical Center. Cerda died on Halloween after his family decided to remove him from life support.

That same day, Oyler was arrested on suspicion of setting the fire.

Oyler was charged with setting the fire and at least 23 others in the San Gorgonio Pass area. This case "is about a man bent on destruction, about a man wanting to be so important he unleashed disaster on five men," prosecutor Michael Hestrin said.

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How fires get their names

Every year in California thousands of wildfires start throughout the state. In most cases, the dispatch center sending the initial resources to a wildland fire will designate a name for the fire, but the first on scene engine or fire official can also name the incident. Fires are usually named for the area in which they start – a geographical location, local landmark, street, lake, mountain, peak, etc. Quickly naming the fire provides responding fire resources with an additional locater, and allows fire officials to track and prioritize incidents by name. For example during the Southern California Fire Siege of 2003, the largest wildland fire in California history, the Cedar Fire in San Diego County, was named after the Cedar Creek Falls area where it started. The destructive Old Fire, which burned during the same time period in San Bernardino County, was named after the road along which it started - Old Waterman Canyon Road.

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Friday, March 6, 2009