Judge to visit deadly fire scene before sentencing hunter
Tuesday August 16, 2005
SAN DIEGO (AP) A federal judge will take the unusual step of visiting the spot where California's biggest wildfire began before sentencing the novice deer hunter who admitted setting it.
The Cedar fire started on Oct. 25, 2003 in the Cleveland National Forest east of San Diego. It burned 422 square miles, killed 15 people, destroyed more than 2,400 homes and caused $819 million in property damage, according to Matt Streck, a spokesman with the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.
Sergio Martinez, 34, pleaded guilty March 10 to a felony charge of setting timber afire and faces up to five years in prison. Martinez said he was lost, dehydrated and disoriented when he set the fire in a misguided attempt to summon help.
U.S. District Judge Roger T. Benitez said he wants to see where the fire started and learn whether strong Santa Ana winds had begun blowing before Martinez ignited it in the afternoon.
Benitez said he's received letters from victims and others saying that the winds didn't begin blowing until 10 p.m.
``That might completely affect my sentencing,'' Benitez said. ``It's a world of difference starting the fire during a Santa Ana versus a time when the wind was relatively calm.''
Government lawyers in court filings said Martinez could see the road 1{ miles away and therefore didn't need to start a signal fire.
Conversely, if the road appears too far to hike to, Martinez should not have set a fire in an area so inaccessible to firefighters, they said.
Benitez may set a sentencing date on Sept. 21.
Martinez is free on a $100,000 bond secured by his parents' home, where he lives in West Covina, Calif., east of Los Angeles.