Transient Who Started the Day Fire Gets Prison
(from the USFS...) VALLEJO, Calif., Nov. 17, 2008 – A transient who started the 2006 Day Fire that burned more than 162,000 acres – most of which was in the Los Padres National Forest – and cost authorities more than $100 million in fire suppression costs was sentenced today to 45 months in federal prison.
Steven Emory Butcher, 49, was convicted in February of starting the one-month-long Day Fire by burning debris at his campsite in Piru Canyon. The federal jury that convicted him deliberated for only two hours before also finding him guilty of causing the 2002 Ellis Fire that burned approximately 70 acres.
“If I would have been on the jury, I would have found myself guilty too,” Butcher told United States District Judge Valerie Baker Fairbank.
In addition to the nearly four-year sentence, Judge Fairbank ordered Butcher to pay $101,652,000 in restitution to the Los Padres National Forest.
Butcher was found guilty of two felonies – two counts of willfully setting on fire debris in the Los Padres National Forest. He was also found guilty of three misdemeanors – allowing a fire to escape from his control, causing the Ellis Fire; violating National Forest restrictions by building a fire, which caused the Day Fire; and smoking in the Los Padres National Forest.
The Day Fire was started on September 4, 2006, on the Ojai Ranger District within a remote portion of Piru Canyon in the Sespe Wilderness area of the Los Padres National Forest, a place where Butcher had long maintained a camp that he lived in for part of the year. The fire burned until October 2, 2006, causing 18 injuries and the destruction of 11 structures.
The Ellis Fire was started on October 4, 2002, in the Los Padres National Forest, approximately two miles southeast of the later origin of the Day Fire.
“The Day Fire resulted in horrendous impacts both economical and social,” said Tom Kuekes, District Ranger for the Los Padres National Forest. “The impacts are ongoing. We’re still dealing with hazardous trees, and erosion, not to mention the risk to firefighters and citizens lives, millions of dollars in lost time redirecting traffic with Interstate 5 closed and air quality. We are very pleased that justice has been served.”
This case was investigated by special agents with the United States Forest Service.
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Comments (11)
"Judge Fairbank ordered Butcher to pay $101,652,000 in restitution to the Los Padres National Forest."
what's the point of a fine like that, really? this man is a 49-year-old transient who's going to be in jail for the next four years. he does not and will not have that money in his life. is that a formality, to calculate a cost? the system has to know he won't be paying that, ever.
Comment #1 Posted by: evan austin | November 20, 2008 10:59 AM
How much will it cost to keep him in prison and what will be his state-of-mind when he is released?
Is he getting job-training in prison, or will be be worse off at the end of his sentence, and possibly commit another crime?
Comment #2 Posted by: Suza | November 20, 2008 11:33 AM
well, he'd surely commit arson again if he didn't get locked up!
Comment #3 Posted by: Anonymous | November 20, 2008 12:22 PM
if you believe that, why not lock him up for life?
Comment #4 Posted by: Anonymous | November 20, 2008 12:28 PM
Nothing in this article says he committed arson as we usually think of it - as in intentionally setting a fire that he knew would burn out of his control just for the sheer fun of it.
He was convicted of setting debris on fire (probably for keeping warm) and letting it get out of his control.
He's far more likely to learn from this accident than someone who has a pathological drive to set fires.
Comment #5 Posted by: Tanya | November 20, 2008 01:49 PM
lock him up for life, we shouldn't suffer fools as easily as we currently do, we are weak, and if we continue on this path we'll get exactly what we deserve.
Comment #6 Posted by: Anonymous | November 20, 2008 07:49 PM
The current annual cost of incarceration in the state of California is $30,929 per person. (Source: California Department of Corrections 2005 Statistics)
This 49 year-old transient likely has another 26 years left in his natural life span.
If that figure is correct (a product of fast and sloppy Google-research) locking him up for life would cost taxpayers roughly $804,154. Anonymous feels that to not choose this option would be a show of weakness.
I'm curious to know what Anonymous feels the position of strength in this case might be, in addition to locking this man up for life.
Let us not suffer fools? Wow. Were such civil decisions only that simple.
And further, just for fun:
fool |foōl|
noun
a person who acts unwisely or imprudently; a silly person : what a fool I was to do this.
• historical a jester or clown, esp. one retained in a noble household.
• informal a person devoted to a particular activity : he is a running fool.
• archaic a person who is duped.
Comment #7 Posted by: Chris Foley | November 24, 2008 11:44 PM
Prison versus Harvard
Excerpt from a Tim Russert Interview with Ted Koppel:
MR. RUSSERT: Before we go, Ted Koppel, tonight at 9 p.m. on Discovery Channel, “Breaking Point.” An in-depth look at the overcrowding, understaffing of the California prison system. And one startling statistic. How much does it cost to go to Harvard University for a year?
MR. KOPPEL: It’s, it’s like $43,200.
MR. RUSSERT: And how much does it cost to house a prisoner in the California penal system?
MR. KOPPEL: Forty-three thousand. However, when the, when they let you out on parole, they hand you $200 bucks. So I think it’s, I think it’s a dead wash.
MR. RUSSERT: What’s the most important thing you found in this report?
MR. KOPPEL: The most important? I don’t know if it’s the most important. I guess the most important is that it’s so overcrowded. The, the prison system was built to house no more than 100,000 in California. It’s got 173,000. They’re controlling it by a form of institutionalized segregation in the prisons. Rather than breaking the gangs up, they’re putting the gangs together so that they can maintain some kind of order on the floor. It’s a disaster.
MR. RUSSERT: And our crime rate had gone up the last two years.
MR. KOPPEL: In California, I think the crime rate since three strikes and you’re out has actually gone down a little bit, but the fact of the matter is that it’s, it’s a problem that is just growing. We have more people in prison in this country than any other nation in the world.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21180419/page/5/
Comment #8 Posted by: Suza | November 25, 2008 09:09 AM
But, other nations in the world deal with criminals very differently.
Comment #9 Posted by: LS | November 25, 2008 09:25 AM
without detracting from the fact that our prison culture is a major social and economic problem, that's a great point, Lisa!
Comment #10 Posted by: evan austin | November 25, 2008 11:32 AM
Yes, thank you, Lisa, a noteworthy point that deserves further consideration.
Comment #11 Posted by: Suza | November 25, 2008 12:10 PM