A notorious 42-year-old convicted pedophile who served only one year in prison for raping a child under 14, has been found guilty of starting one of California’s largest wildfires, the flames consuming a staggering 430,000 acres and destroying more than 700 structures.
In a criminal bench trial, a Butte County Superior Court judge found Ronnie Dean Stout II guilty of intentional arson on Friday, exactly two years after prosecutors alleged he started the massive Park Fire, near the city of Chico, 160 miles north of San Francisco, on July 24, 2024.
Stout had a rap sheet. He previously was convicted of a sex crime against a child under the age of 14 in 2001 and served a year in jail. After he was released, Stout was convicted of robbery with great bodily injury and sentenced to 20 years in prison.
The Park Fire ranks as the fourth largest fire in the state’s history when measured by total acreage consumed. Some 427 of the 709 structures lost were residential homes, news outlets reported.
Stout is accused of pushing a burning 2007 Toyota Yaris into a ravine in the upper Bidwell Park on the afternoon of the 24th, the burning car quickly igniting nearby vegetation on what was a red flag day with dry conditions and high winds.
Stout, now scheduled to be sentenced October 9, faces 25-years-to-life in prison under California’s three-strikes law.
Breitbart report: Public Defender Nicole Diamond argued that Stout’s actions with the car could not be considered reckless if he did not know they were dangerous and the fire was the result of “accidental mechanical combustion,” according to the Chico Enterprise-Record’s coverage of the trial.
Butte County Prosecutor Marc Noel argued that an average person should have known that driving a car into high dry grass on a red flag warning day, with temperatures exceeding 100 degrees, was dangerous.
A fire official testified that heat from the car caused the dry brush to light up underneath Stout’s Toyota, setting the car on fire.
“This was a disaster waiting to happen,” Noel said at one point. “All it needed was a source, and Mr. Stout was that source.”
Stout claimed to investigators that he had pulled the car off the road and it just ended up rolling over a berm.
However, that claim was disputed by cellphone tracking data that showed he had been texting his girlfriend at the time and witness testimony that he had been driving recklessly.
A witness named Elizabeth Fox testified that she had seen Stout push the car into the ravine. She recorded video of Stout leaving the area calmly once the blaze had started, according to the Daily Mail’s coverage of the case.
She posted her footage on TikTok, causing it to circulate online and go viral.
Diamond argued that Fox’s testimony was not reliable, saying the “people’s case rises and falls on her description of the events.” She also said Fox had “admitted mental health” issues, including post-traumatic stress as a survivor of the 2018 Camp Fire, which also happened in Butte County.
Superior Court Judge Kristen Lucena did not buy that argument or other defense claims, saying that she was convinced Stout had the necessary intent for willful arson.
Prosecutors are now gathering victim impact statements from community members affected by property destruction, financial loss, or displacement.