STAFF REPORTS
Glendora – The United States Attorney’s Office has issued a news release stating that three men have been found guilty on federal felony charges for starting the illegal campfire that turned into the Colby Fire in the hills above Glendora in the Angeles National Forest in January 2014.
According to the release, two of the men had already been found guilty, but the third man involved found himself in grim company on May 22. Jonathan Carl Jarrell, 24, was also found guilty of a felony offense of unlawfully setting timber afire. After a three-day trial, a jury also convicted Jarrell of a misdemeanor offense of illegally starting a fire. Jarrell joins defendants Clifford Eugene Henry, Jr., 22, of Glendora, and Steven Robert Aguirre, 21, who were each found guilty earlier this month of four charges – one felony and three misdemeanors – related to the fire.
The Colby Fire started on the morning of January 16. By that evening, the fire had consumed more than 1,700 acres of federal, state, local and private lands. The fire had also destroyed five residences, damaged 17 additional structures, and resulted in injuries to one civilian and two firefighters.
Henry, Aguirre and Jarrell were detained by Glendora Police Officers after they were seen escaping the fire. During interviews with Glendora Police and personnel with the Los Angeles County Fire Department’s Arson Investigations Unit, all three defendants admitted to playing a role in the starting of a campfire that initiated the Colby Fire after wind blew burning paper into the brush in the hills above Glendora.
A United States Forest Service fire investigator determined that the origin of the Colby Fire was at a point near a fire ring built by the three men at a location on federal lands within the Angeles National Forest.
As a result of the guilty verdicts, Jarrell faces more than five years in federal prison when he is sentenced on July 31. Henry and Aguirre are scheduled to be sentenced on August 4. They each face a statutory maximum penalty of 6½ years in prison.
