D.A.: Defendant a `Serial Arsonist’
A Banning man who allegedly ignited nine fires thatburned a total 670 acres throughout Riverside and San Bernardino counties wascharged today with multiple counts of arson and other allegations.
He plead notguiltyto all charges and will appear in court again on July 17th. The defense asked he be ordered to take apsychiatricevaluation.
Steven Taylor Rutherford, 47, was arrested last week following a months-long investigation by Cal Fire.
Rutherford could face 80 years in prison if convicted of 13 counts ofarson with sentence-enhancing allegations of using incendiary devices for thepurpose of intentionally setting a fire and causing destruction of property.
The convicted felon, who is being held in lieu of $5 million bail at theRobert Presley Jail in downtown Riverside, was slated to make his initialcourt appearance this afternoon at the Riverside Hall of Justice.
“This individual is a serial arsonist who poses a dangerous risk to thecitizens of Southern California,” Riverside County District Attorney PaulZellerbach said during a news briefing at the D.A.’s headquarters.
Zellerbach was joined by San Bernardino County District Attorney MikeRamos, Riverside County Fire Department Chief John Hawkins, Cal Fire SoCalRegional Chief Dale Hutchinson and Deputy District Attorney Amy Zeta, who willbe prosecuting the Rutherford case.
According to investigators, the defendant is responsible for nine firesin the San Gorgonio Pass and southern San Bernardino County going back to Sept.6, 2011.
The most recent blaze, the “Mills Fire,” occurred June 28 in the areaof Mills Creek and Newport roads on the outskirts of Mentone, scorching 534acres and damaging four properties, including two homes.
“We have a zero tolerance for arson,” Hawkins said. “You can’tmeasure the impact just in acres; there’s destruction of homes, damage to otherproperty, evacuations, people frightened of losing everything.”
According to Zellerbach, there were two injuries associated with thefires — a member of an inmate hand crew who suffered minor burns and afirefighter who collapsed from heat exhaustion.
“Arsonists are cowards,” Ramos said. “They light and run. We takethese cases very seriously.”
Zellerbach said that all but two of the blazes were set in RiversideCounty, so his office will handle the prosecution.
According to Zellerbach, Rutherford allegedly used a “delayed ignitiondevice” to set the fires. The D.A. declined to elaborate on the type of devicethat was used. However, in drawing parallels to Rutherford’s alleged acts,Zellerbach mentioned the Esperanza wildfire, a 41,000-acre blaze ignited in2006 by Beaumont mechanic Raymond Lee Oyler, who now sits on California’s DeathRow for killing five U.S. Forest Service firefighters caught in a tidal flamewhile trying to defend a home near Twin Pines.
Oyler’s preferred device was a cigarette strapped to woodstick matches.
“Arson is unique,” Zellerbach said. “Most crimes are targeted. Arsonis indiscriminate: the fires can go anywhere and hurt or injure anyone. Thecases can be very difficult to prove.”
He said law enforcement surveillance, security videotape capturedoutside businesses and GPS devices eventually placed on the defendant’svehicles helped build the case against Rutherford, who has a prior convictionfor arson from 1989, for which he received a year in jail and three yearsprobation, according to D.A.’s office.
