[EBasil]

Plea bargain is hinted at for suspect in Cedar fire

February 5, 2005
Prosecutors and lawyers for the man accused of setting the Cedar fire may be discussing a plea bargain, according to statements they made yesterday in San Diego federal court.

"We're trying to discuss alternatives to trial," prosecutor Michael Lasater told U.S. District Court Judge Roger T. Benitez during a brief hearing for Sergio Martinez, 34, of West Covina.
Outside the courtroom, Lasater wouldn't expand on that statement, but Martinez's lawyer appeared to be optimistic that the case will not go to trial.
"We believe we are heading in the right direction," defense lawyer Wayne Higgins told reporters. "There is going to be a positive result for everyone."
Martinez has pleaded not guilty to charges that he set the Cedar fire Oct. 25, 2003, and lied about it. He faces 10 years in prison if convicted.
Fifteen people died as the fire spread from the Cleveland National Forest west Miramar and east to Lake Cuyamaca, burning 422 square miles and destroying more than 2,000 homes.
Higgins said the case isn't just about how the fire started, but also about Martinez's mental state that day and what authorities did – or did not do – about the rapidly spreading flames.
"The real issue is whether or not this is a triable case," he said.
The vast majority of criminal cases result in plea agreements, with trials typically taking place only when prosecutors and defense attorneys can't agree on the facts or a potential penalty.
Benitez postponed hearing pretrial motions in the case until March 4.
He was scheduled to set a trial date, review questions for potential jurors and consider a request from the defense to keep jurors from hearing statements Martinez made the evening the fire started.
Prosecutors said Martinez apologized when he was rescued from the Cleveland National Forest and asked medics whether a gunshot could have started the fire.
He also said he tried to put the fire out with his hat, and was concerned that police would find marijuana in his pickup, prosecutors said in court papers.
Yesterday, Higgins downplayed the role such statements will ultimately play in what happens with his client.
"I don't think those statements are paramount," he said.
Martinez was hunting deer when he became separated from a hunting buddy that day. He told authorities he ran out of water, spent several hours trying to find his way back to his truck and fired his gun in an effort to attract attention.
He was dehydrated and incoherent when a sheriff's helicopter crew rescued him near the spot where the fire began, according to his rescuers.
Prosecutors say they believe he started the fire in an effort to be found.
They say that he told an investigator he was afraid he would die in the national forest and that he said he probably should have.
Martinez is free on a $100,000 bond secured by his parents' house, where he lives.

 

[EBasil]

There's more:

February 9, 2005
The hunter accused of setting the Cedar fire remembers few details of what happened that day, his lawyer said in court papers asking a judge to appoint mental health and fire experts to assist the defense.

"All he remembers is that he was at the National Forest on a hunting trip with a friend of his, but does not recollect how the fire got started," lawyer Wayne Higgins said.
Prosecutors say Sergio Martinez, 34, of West Covina started the fire in an effort to be found. Martinez has pleaded not guilty in San Diego federal court to setting the fire and lying about it. If convicted, he faces 10 years in prison.
In the papers filed last week, Higgins asked for court-appointed experts to evaluate the fire's origins and to give an opinion about Martinez's mental condition when the fire began.
"His actions and conduct prior and after the fire were not rational," Higgins said in the papers. "He has not been able to explain to me the origin of the fire."
In court Friday, prosecutor Michael Lasater said his office and Higgins needed time to "discuss alternatives to trial," hinting that a plea agreement is possible in the case.
In an interview yesterday, Higgins said negotiations are likely.
"We've never engaged in those conversations, and we're at the point where we're ready to start those conversations," he said.
Higgins said he still wants an independent assessment of the fire and an evaluation of his client's mental state.
"The declaration of the experts is something that we need regardless," he said.
Fifteen people died and more than 2,200 homes burned as the fire spread from the Cleveland National Forest near Pine Hills west to Miramar and east to Lake Cuyamaca in October and November 2003.
As Martinez was rescued by sheriff's deputies, he apologized while looking at the spreading flames, prosecutors said. He also said he tried to put the fire out with his hat, which was singed, they said.
Higgins is trying to get a judge to keep jurors from hearing those statements if the case goes to trial.

 

[EBasil]

Alleged statements aired in documents
By Onell R. Soto
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
February 2, 2005

The man accused of setting the Cedar fire told an investigator he thought he was going to die in the forest and "probably should have," according to documents filed by federal prosecutors.

In the documents, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the first time details what Sergio Martinez of West Covina, a lost deer hunter, said in the hours after a sheriff's helicopter crew found him near the rapidly growing fire in the Cleveland National Forest on Oct. 25, 2003.

Martinez told investigators he fired a shot from his rifle to get attention before putting his head down on a rock to sleep. He said he awoke to the smell of smoke and saw the flames, prosecutors said in papers made public this week.

He said he tried to put out the fire with his hat, which was singed, they said.

Martinez several times denied starting the fire, but he apologized repeatedly and expressed concern that authorities might find a marijuana cigarette left in his truck, prosecutors said.

In other documents, prosecutors have said Martinez started the fire as a means of being found.

They said they don't believe a gunshot started the fire because investigators found "an unnaturally piled bundle of sticks and grasses" and Martinez's canteen near the spot where the fire began.

Defense lawyers are asking a judge to keep prosecutors from using Martinez's statements in his trial, saying in court papers they were made "involuntarily, under coercion and when defendant was in a state of physical pain and mental distress."

They also say Martinez wasn't properly advised of his Miranda rights – the familiar "You have the right to remain silent. . . . "

Prosecutors said Martinez spoke voluntarily and such a warning wasn't required because he wasn't under arrest.

A San Diego federal judge is scheduled to hear those arguments Friday, set a trial date and review questions for potential jurors.

Defense lawyer Wayne Higgins was unavailable yesterday to comment on the case.

In court papers, Higgins said Martinez's mental state when the fire started and when he was questioned may be an issue in the case.

Martinez, 34, is accused of setting the largest wildfire in state history and lying about it. He faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted. He has pleaded not guilty.

The Cedar fire burned 422 square miles and destroyed more than 2,200 homes before it was extinguished more than a month later. Fifteen people died.

Sheriff's deputies rescued Martinez and gave him water as the flames were growing, prosecutor Kevin Mulcahy said in the court filing.

"This is heroic police conduct, not coercive misconduct," Mulcahy said.

Deputy Rocky Laws asked Martinez whether he started the fire, Mulcahy said.

"Defendant replied 'no,' but then hung his head low and looked at the fire saying, 'I'm sorry about all of this,' " he said.

Martinez apologized again and again as they walked to the helicopter, and once aboard said, "I'm sorry, I had to," while looking at the fire, the prosecutor said.

After being moved to an ambulance, Martinez told a medic that he didn't start the fire, but rather used a flashlight to signal the helicopter and later asked another medic if a rifle shot could start a fire, Mulcahy said.

He said Martinez told medics he was afraid he would have to spend the night in the forest, and wanted to signal for help.

After a sheriff's deputy took Martinez's keys to move his truck, Martinez told medics he was worried about marijuana, Mulcahy said.

"Oh (expletive), I left a joint on the dash, I wonder if they'll find it," he said, according to the prosecutor. "I didn't even remember until now."

After declining further medical treatment, Martinez rode with U.S. Forest Service Officer Michelle Sarubbi to the Ramona sheriff's substation.

"During the drive to the substation, Martinez said that he thought he was going to die in the forest, and he probably should have," Mulcahy said.

At the substation, Martinez spoke with Sarubbi, a sheriff's deputy and an official of the California Department of Forestry, saying he and another hunter became separated in the morning and he drank the last of his water about noon, he said.

Martinez said he tried climbing hills to get his bearings and firing his rifle every hour to draw attention, but grew tired and rested on a rock, going to sleep after firing his last round, the prosecutor said.

Mulcahy argued that those statements can be used at trial because they were voluntary.

"Throughout his statement, Martinez appeared in good spirits and not under any distress," he said.

And Martinez was not under arrest, Mulcahy said.

"Police had no information about the cause of the fire at the time of the interview," he said. "They only knew that he was the person found closest to the blaze."

 

[Kornphlake]

well we've got to lynch somebody don't we? This Martinez character seems like as good a candidate as anybody.

 

[genpowell71]

I Know that your state takes an act of God to own a firearm, but is castration still legal there?

 

[MTDBIKE]

Give him exactly what he did to others, death by fire.

 

[largerthan9]

WOW I am speechless........

 

[amateur]

well we've got to lynch somebody don't we? This Martinez character seems like as good a candidate as anybody.

I agree with you on us needing someone to blame, but it certainly does seem to point towards this guy. If it's him, which it seems to be, burn him at the stake.

 

[ibismojo]

what a douche....that **** ruined many things in san diego.

 

[EBasil]

Hunter to admit guilt, lawyer says

By Onell R. Soto
STAFF WRITER

March 9, 2005

Federal prosecutors and a lawyer for the lost hunter accused of setting the Cedar fire said last night that they have reached a tentative plea bargain.

"I anticipate that there will be a plea, a guilty plea, to charges relating to the Cedar fire," said Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Lasater.

Wayne Higgins, the lawyer for Sergio Martinez, 34, of West Covina, confirmed that a plea bargain is in place.

Martinez is scheduled to appear in court tomorrow morning. His plea will not be final until he enters it in court, and a judge accepts it.

Martinez is accused of setting the Cedar fire, the biggest of three major fires that engulfed San Diego County in late October 2003.

It burned 422 square miles, destroyed more than 2,000 homes, killed 15 people and took more than a month to completely extinguish.

Neither Lasater nor Higgins would provide details about the plea bargain or what penalty Martinez might face.

The sentence will certainly be less than the 10 years in prison he faced had he been convicted of all the original charges of starting the fire and lying about it.

The majority of criminal cases end in plea bargains, in which prosecutors generally agree to lesser charges – and thus a reduced sentence – in exchange for a guilty plea. That allows both sides avoid the uncertainty and expense of going to trial.

Lasater hinted at a plea bargain in court Feb. 4 when he said lawyers were willing to talk about "alternatives to trial." Higgins said then he was ready to begin negotiating.

In court filings, prosecutors said Martinez started the fire as a means of being found and presented a strong circumstantial case.

They said Martinez apologized to deputies as he was rescued by a sheriff's helicopter from the Cleveland National Forest on Oct. 25, 2003. Investigators discovered his canteen a short distance from an "unnaturally piled bundle of sticks and grasses" at the spot where the fire began.

Martinez, who was deer hunting that day, later asked paramedics if a stray bullet could have started the fire.

And he had a singed hat he told a Forest Service investigator he used to try to put out the fire, prosecutors said.

He told investigators that he got lost, ran out of water and spent several hours trying to find his way back to his truck, occasionally firing his gun in hopes someone would hear.

After firing his last shot, he said he put his head down on a rock to sleep and awoke when he smelled smoke, prosecutors said.

Higgins said Martinez doesn't remember much of what happened that day and wasn't making sense when he talked to authorities.

Some victims of the fire have criticized firefighting officials for not acting quicker to prevent the blaze from growing into an uncontrollable curtain of flame stretching from Miramar to Lake Cuyamaca.

They have said the real issue isn't how the fire started, but what was – or wasn't – done about it.

"I just think they've closed the door on the full entire investigation of it," said Patricia Martin, whose home high above Cuyamaca survived.

Martin is a member of the Committee for Full Accountability on the Cedar Fire, a small group that believes early warnings of the fire were ignored regardless of whether Martinez caused the fire.

"I don't blame him for the whole thing," she said. "He did not make the fire people not respond."

A few victims reached last night said they don't hold much animosity toward Martinez.

"I'm sure he knows what a horrible, stupid thing he did, but I don't think he did it trying to hurt anybody," said Veronica Giron-Stone, a Scripps Ranch resident whose home burned.

"Am I looking for some kind of vengeance? I guess not," she said. "It's not like he can pay everyone back for their houses."

In Tierrasanta, Melody Morse said she knows some survivors who have been anticipating Martinez's day in court.

But for herself, "I never focused my anger on him," said Morse, whose family lost their rental home and uninsured belongings in the fire.

"In some ways, I felt sorry for him because of the guilt he must have felt," she said. "I always felt he had made a mistake, but in a way it wasn't the same as someone who (committed) a hit-and-run."

Martinez has stayed publicly silent since the Forest Service announced Oct. 27, 2004, that he might have started the blaze.

Sheriff's deputies Dave Weldon and Rocky Laws pulled Martinez from the forest after his hunting partner reported him missing.

"He said, 'No . . . I'm sorry. I'm sorry about all of this,' " Weldon told The San Diego Union-Tribune at the time. "He was basically delirious.

"I asked him what he started it with, and he wouldn't comment," Weldon added. "He just remained quiet.

"Then he said: 'I thought I was going to die out there. Thanks for saving my life.' "

Paramedics who treated Martinez for dehydration said he was worried that authorities would find marijuana in his pickup, prosecutors said.

Martinez works for a home construction firm and is free on a $100,000 bond secured by his parents' house, where he lives.