{"id":2959,"date":"2021-12-13T16:30:20","date_gmt":"2021-12-14T00:30:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/?p=2959"},"modified":"2021-12-16T17:21:44","modified_gmt":"2021-12-17T01:21:44","slug":"million-dollar-bail-reduced-to-25k-for-father-50k-for-son-in-of-sparking-california-wildfire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/2021\/12\/13\/million-dollar-bail-reduced-to-25k-for-father-50k-for-son-in-of-sparking-california-wildfire\/","title":{"rendered":"Million-Dollar Bail Reduced to $25k for Father, $50k for Son in Sparking of Caldor Wildfire"},"content":{"rendered":"
[BY SAM STANTON, Sac Bee.<\/a> UPDATED DECEMBER 13, 2021 4:27 PM]<\/pre>\n
A Placerville judge Monday slashed the $1 million bail for the father and son accused of starting the Caldor Fire in August, saying there was no evidence that they acted maliciously and rejecting most arguments that they are a flight risk.<\/p>\n
\u201cJustice was done today,\u201d said Mark Reichel, defense attorney for Travis Shane Smith, 32, whose bail was reduced to $50,000. His father, David Scott Smith, 66, had his bail reduced to $25,000 after his attorney, Linda Parisi, joined Reichel in arguing that the men are lifelong residents of the area with no criminal history and no reason to leave behind their lives and families.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese men want to come to court and to clear their names,\u201d Parisi said. \u201cThis is the community they live in, the community they love.\u201d<\/p>\n
The two men sat handcuffed in the jury box in orange jail garb wearing face masks while their lawyers argued for them. $2 for 2 months Subscribe for unlimited access to our website, app, eEdition and more CLAIM OFFER Prosecutor Nora Hall countered that the potential prison sentences they could face – 14 years for Shane Smith, 12 for his father – and the unknown amount of restitution they might be ordered to pay made them potential flight risks.<\/p>\n
But El Dorado Superior Court Judge Ralph Marks noted that the charges they face do not show they pose a danger to the community and said a reduction in bail was warranted because there is no indication either man acted intentionally when the fire erupted.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is no evidence that this was malicious,\u201d the judge said, adding that the fire was one of the worst disasters to hit the region. Reichel and Parisi argued in a court filing for a bail reduction to $100,000 or less, and said after court that there is no evidence either man sparked the fire.<\/p>\n
Instead, they said, the prosecution is arguing \u201cit is likely\u201d they did because the men were in the area when it began and they called 911 to report it, giving dispatchers their names. David Smith of Somerset and his son, Shane Smith of Folsom, were arrested last week and held in the El Dorado County Jail in lieu of $1 million bail each on felony counts of recklessly starting a fire, as well as weapons charges involving a machine gun and silencer.<\/p>\n
Hall filed documents Monday saying the father and son are a danger and should remain held on $1 million bail each.<\/p>\n
The Caldor Fire burned more than 220,000 acres in El Dorado, Amador and Alpine counties and destroyed entire neighborhoods, including much of the community of Grizzly Flat.<\/p>\n
More than 1,000 homes, business and other structures were destroyed, and five people were injured.<\/p>\n
The blaze burned for 67 days through the Sierra foothills along Highway 50, and forced the evacuations of thousands of residents from South Lake Tahoe, Pollock Pines and other communities.<\/p>\n
In a court filing Monday morning, Reichel and Parisi argued that although they received 5,000 pages of discovery evidence from prosecutors on Sunday, there are scant details that would tie either man to the fire.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is no \u2018cause and origin\u2019 report by an arson investigator\/expert with an opinion as to the source or cause of the fire,\u201d they wrote.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is no theory advanced by the prosecution as to how and in what manner and with what means that either defendant is responsible for the start of the fire.\u201d<\/p>\n
They also argued that despite the fact that others were in the area Aug. 14 where the fire started \u2014 including miners tending to claims and others with vehicles and campfires \u2014 \u201cnone of these persons saw the defendants allegedly start the fire.\u201d<\/p>\n
The attorneys also note that the men immediately called 911 to report the blaze. \u201cThere is no dispute from the people\u2019s evidence that the defendants called 911 to report the fire as soon as they had cell coverage, and no dispute that they warned others of the fire immediately,\u201d Reichel and Parisi argued. \u201cTheir behavior was anything other than \u2018reckless.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
The lawyers also noted that neither man had any criminal history, and submitted letters of support from friends, relatives and co-workers attesting to their integrity and arguing that neither is a flight risk.<\/p>\n
Prosecutors opposed the effort to reduce bail, writing in a motion that there is \u201cclear and convincing\u201d evidence the pair are a danger to the community.<\/p>\n
Hall also argued that Shane Smith\u2019s social media posts demonstrate \u201chis interest in shooting, firearms, burning fires, using incendiary ammunition, and a general lack of concern for proper firearms safety when shooting.\u201d \u201cShane\u2019s social media posts include a photo and videos posted in February 2020 and March 2020 that show him shooting \u2018Dragon\u2019s Breath\u2019 incendiary rounds from firearms,\u201d Hall wrote.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe incendiary rounds cause a significant amount of ignited material to eject from the barrel.\u201d She added that the February 2020 post purported to be in the \u201cNavada(sic) Desert,\u201d but actually was on his father\u2019s El Dorado County property.\u201d Hall also said that earplugs found in the area of the fire\u2019s ignition were analyzed for DNA and \u201crevealed that Shane was included as a potential contributor of the DNA.\u201d<\/p>\n
Investigators also determined that Shane\u2019s Polaris off-road vehicle was in the area of the fire before it ignited and was there for 20 minutes, \u201cthen stopped on Caldor Road at a time consistent with Shane\u2019s 911 call.\u201d Investigators have been probing whether the fire was ignited by target shooting.<\/p>\n
Court files say that five days before the fire Shane Travis arranged a straw purchase from a seller in Arizona for a \u201cRare Breed Trigger\u201d device that can convert an AR-1 5 into a machine gun. The prosecution also wrote that Shane Smith has used a work-issued cell phone to record a conversation he had with a federal investigator concerning the fire. \u201cThis work-issued cellphone has since gone missing,\u201d court papers say. The judge ordered both men to remain in California unless they get permission from the court to travel, and ordered both to hand over all firearms and ammunition while awaiting trial.<\/p>\n
This story was originally published December 13, 2021 2:10 PM.<\/pre>\n
Read more at: https:\/\/www.sanluisobispo.com\/news\/california\/article256560496.html<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u201cThere is no \u2018cause and origin\u2019 report by an arson investigator\/expert with an opinion as to the source or cause of the fire,\u201d they wrote.
\n\u201cThere is no theory advanced by the prosecution as to how and in what manner and with what means that either defendant is responsible for the start of the fire.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2960,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[22,1],"tags":[41],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/ScreenHunter-1425.jpg",738,270,false],"thumbnail":["http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/ScreenHunter-1425-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/ScreenHunter-1425-600x220.jpg",600,220,true],"medium_large":["http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/ScreenHunter-1425.jpg",640,234,false],"large":["http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/ScreenHunter-1425.jpg",640,234,false],"1536x1536":["http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/ScreenHunter-1425.jpg",738,270,false],"2048x2048":["http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/ScreenHunter-1425.jpg",738,270,false],"darknews-slider-full":["http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/ScreenHunter-1425.jpg",738,270,false],"darknews-featured":["http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/ScreenHunter-1425.jpg",738,270,false],"darknews-medium":["http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/ScreenHunter-1425-720x270.jpg",720,270,true],"darknews-medium-square":["http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/ScreenHunter-1425-350x270.jpg",350,270,true]},"author_info":{"display_name":"News MoLo","author_link":"http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/author\/admin\/"},"category_info":"Government<\/a> News<\/a>","tag_info":"News","comment_count":"1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2959"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2959"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2959\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3019,"href":"http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2959\/revisions\/3019"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2960"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2959"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2959"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2959"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}