VISTA, Calif. -- A 19-year-old man who set a small brushfire in Vista at the height of the recent San Diego County wildfires pleaded guilty Monday to one count of arson of forest land.
Gorgonio Nava admitted starting the fire, but he disputed an allegation that he set the Oct. 23 blaze while San Diego County was under a state-declared emergency. After a one-hour hearing, Judge Joel Pressman ruled against Nava on the allegation.
The defendant faces up to nine years in state prison when he's sentenced on June 6 -- a maximum of six years for the arson and three years for the enhancement that the crime occurred during the emergency.
In a preliminary hearing last November, San Diego County sheriff's bomb-arson Investigator Robert Luke testified that Nava told him he and his younger brother were walking home from a store when they tore a sign off a telephone pole, set it aflame with a lighter and placed it under vegetation.
Nava told him they thought it would be fun, but realized they made a mistake when they saw the flames, Luke said.
The fire blackened a 200-square-foot patch of vegetation in the 1300 block of Calera Street.
Witnesses guided deputies to the apartment of Nava and his brother, whose case was handled separately in Juvenile Court.
About the allegation, Ron Lane, the county director of emergency services, testified that a state emergency proclamation took effect for seven Southern California counties, including San Diego, on Oct. 21.
Defense attorney Jeff Reichert said his client was not aware of the proclamation.
"How could you not know?" Deputy District Attorney Roy Lai asked the judge rhetorically. "The whole county was burning."
