Sierra Conservation Center inmate pleads guilty to Arson

Inmate pleads guilty to fire at ‘Big Whiskey’

A Sierra Conservation Center inmate who escaped from prison in July 2008 and set fire to a landmark home in Jamestown faces up to eight additional years in prison after he pleaded guilty Monday to arson and escape.

George Landecho Lopez, 36, entered his plea as part of an agreement with the Tuolumne County District Attorney’s Office.

Under the deal, Lopez faces up to eight years for escaping from custody by force and arson of an inhabited structure, Deputy District Attorney John Hansen said. Lopez will also have to register as an arsonist.

The DA dropped three other counts —first degree residential burglary, burglary and receiving stolen property, as part of the agreement. He could have faced nine years and eight months in prison if found guilty on all charges, according to Hansen.

Lopez will be sentenced at 1:30 p.m. Nov. 16 in Department 1 of the Tuolumne County Superior Court.

Lopez was slated for trial Oct. 28.

He pleaded not guilty at his first arraignment July 31 but had the option to change his plea Aug. 31, or take an eight-year cap deal offered by the District Attorney’s Office.

However, on Aug. 31 Lopez maintained that he was not guilty and a trial was scheduled.

The Tehama County resident escaped from a carpentry shop on July 16, 2008, by cutting a fence. On July 18, 2008, he burned down a large house at 6900 O’Byrnes Ferry Road that Clint Eastwood stayed at while filming the movie “Unforgiven.”

Eastwood dubbed the home “The Big Whiskey.”

The fire also destroyed a vast collection of antiques in the home at the time, appraised at about $500,000, homeowner Kari Faughnan has said.

Lopez was captured July 22, 2008. He was found hiding in a vacant firehouse in Chinese Camp. He was found with jewelry and an antique gun belonging to Faughnan, and wearing clothing taken from her home, court documents said.

Lopez has prior convictions in Imperial County for possession of marijuana for sale, and in Tehama County for being a felon in possession of a firearm, failing to appear while on bail, and evading an officer, court documents said.

Faughnan and her estranged husband, Steven Faughnan, sued Sierra Conservation Center Aug. 26 in the Tuolumne County Superior Court seeking $2 million in damages.

The suit claims SCC was obligated to search the area surrounding the prison for 72 hours but called the search off after only 24 hours.

The suit further alleges the Faughnan home is included in a checklist of mandatory homes surrounding the prison to be searched, but it was not.

Kari Faughnan said Monday she was happy Lopez pleaded guilty so she can begin to move on.

“The one thing I keep saying, you could build me 10 houses, you can’t give me back what was lost in the fire. It wasn’t replaceable,” Faughnan said, adding that both she and her son have seen a counselor since the fire.

Faughnan said many community members reached out to her family and that sheriff’s and fire investigators were exceptionally supportive.

“When it comes to him (Lopez), I’m just trying to find a place in my heart where I can forgive him ... and just move on with my life,” Faughnan. “I’m just so happy we don’t have to sit through five days of trial.”

Source: Union Democrat - Link