On Tuesday, Feb. 11, a criminal grand jury indictment was unsealed and a Banning man arraigned on 13 felony counts connected to nine arson fires in Riverside and San Bernardino counties between 2011 and 2013, the Riverside County District Attorney\u2019s office announced. Six of the fires were in the San Jacinto Mountains.<\/p>\n
Steven Taylor Rutherford, 48, has been charged with 13 felony counts of arson with enhancements, including use of a delayed ignition device and having a prior arson conviction. The prior conviction was for a Riverside County arson fire set in 1989.<\/p>\n
Rutherford\u2019s arrest on June 28, 2013, was the culmination of a lengthy Cal Fire arson investigation. He was connected to the series of arson fires through law enforcement and commercial business surveillance cameras, as well as lawfully placed GPS trackers on his vehicles.<\/p>\n
Rutherford entered not guilty pleas to all 13 counts and denied all the enhancements. He is now scheduled for a trial readiness conference on March 11, and a trial is scheduled for April 9. If convicted as currently charged, Rutherford faces about 80 years in prison.<\/p>\n
One of the nine fires Rutherford is charged with intentionally starting was the \u201cMills Fire\u201d in San Bernardino County. Riverside County DA Paul Zellerbach and San Bernardino County DA Mike Ramos have agreed that the Riverside County DA\u2019s office will prosecute the San Bernardino County case, along with the other eight arson fires that occurred in Riverside County.<\/p>\n
Rutherford is charged with intentionally starting the following arson fires, listed chronologically:<\/p>\n
The grand jury proceedings \u2014 which are confidential until the unsealing of an indictment -\u2014 were held in this case over four days earlier this month during which 28 witnesses testified.<\/p>\n
Deputy DA Amy Zeta of the DA\u2019s Special Prosecutions Section is the prosecutor for this case.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
On Tuesday, Feb. 11, a criminal grand jury indictment was unsealed and a Banning man arraigned on 13 felony counts connected to nine arson fires in Riverside and San Bernardino counties between 2011 and 2013, the Riverside County District Attorney\u2019s office announced. Six of the fires were in the San Jacinto Mountains. Steven Taylor Rutherford, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"amp_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n