RIVERSIDE, Calif. (AP) — A jury has convicted an auto mechanic of murdering five federal firefighters who were overrun by an arson wildfire in a Southern California mountain community in 2006.
The guilty verdicts were returned Friday against 38-year-old Raymond Lee Oyler in Riverside County Superior Court. He could face the death penalty.
Oyler has also been convicted of 20 counts of arson. The jury deadlocked on three other arson counts.
Verdicts have yet to be read on 17 counts of using an incendiary device.
Oyler was charged with setting fires between May 16, 2006, and Oct. 26, 2006.
The crew of San Bernardino National Forest Engine 57 was overrun by a fire in October while defending an isolated home in the San Jacinto Mountains, about 90 miles east of Los Angeles.
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RIVERSIDE, Calif. (AP) — A jury has convicted an auto mechanic of five murder counts in a 2006 California arson wildfire that overran a federal firefighting engine crew.
The guilty verdicts were returned Friday against 38-year-old Raymond Lee Oyler in Riverside County Superior Court.
Oyler was charged with five counts of first-degree murder, 23 counts of arson and 17 counts of using an incendiary device for fires set between May 16, 2006 and Oct. 26, 2006.
He was charged with setting nearly two dozen fires over a five-month period in 2006, from May through October.
The crew of San Bernardino National Forest Engine 57 was overrun while defending an isolated home in the San Jacinto Mountains, about 90 miles east of Los Angeles.
