Gary Stephen Maynard, 49, of San Jose, pleaded guilty in February to a few counts of arson of federal property.
Maynard admitted to setting 4 fires in the summertime of 2021 – the Cascade Fire on July 20, the Everitt Fire on July 21 and the Ranch and Conard fires on Aug. 7, the U.S. Attorney's Office said in a news release. They were set within the Shasta-Trinity National Forest and near the then-burning Dixie Fire in Lassen National Forest.
“Maynard committed a spree of arsons on federal lands while California was experiencing one of the worst fire seasons in history,” said U.S. Attorney Phillip Talbert. “He intentionally made a dangerous situation more dangerous by setting some of his fires behind the men and women fighting the Dixie Fire, potentially cutting off any means of escape for them.”
The Dixie Fire broke out on July 13, 2021, after a Pacific Gas & Electric Co. power line struck a tree. Over the subsequent three and a half months, the fireplace burned 963,309 acres across five counties. It stays the biggest single-source wildfire in state history.
Authorities first encountered Maynard while investigating the Cascade Fire on July 20, 2021. He was arrested the next month after a tracking device attached to his Kia Soul recorded his movements within the wooded area between Redding and Susanville. Three fires – Moon, Ranch and Conard – were positioned along his route.
During the investigation, authorities contacted San Jose Police, who informed them that one in every of Maynard's co-workers had raised concerns about his well-being in the autumn of 2020.
Maynard served as an adjunct professor at Santa Clara University from September 2019 to December 2020. During the pandemic, he also taught online courses at Sonoma State University, Monterey Peninsula College, and Chapman University.
In addition to sentencing Maynard to prison, a judge ordered him to serve three years of probation and pay about $13,000 in restitution, authorities said.
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