ShareThisBy RICHARD K. DE ATLEY and LISA O'NEILL HILL
Wednesday, November 15, 2006
A matchstick-and-cigarette ignition device found at the flashpoint of the deadly Esperanza fire is similar to those recovered from two June arson blazes that are linked by DNA to Raymond Lee Oyler, court papers say.
But the Oct. 31 document does not establish a DNA link between the Esperanza fire and the Beaumont mechanic charged with setting the blaze that claimed the lives of five firefighters.
Prosecutors declined to say if evidence gathered at the Esperanza fire has since been linked to Oyler by DNA and would not discuss the court document.
"We want to stress there is overwhelming evidence," Riverside County district attorney's office spokeswoman Ingrid Wyatt said. "We're confident in our case. There's just no question about it. We're absolutely sure we have the right man behind bars."
Wyatt said prosecutors would not discuss the case because they want to preserve the integrity of the investigation.
Oyler's attorney, Mark R. McDonald, played down the information contained in the court document, saying it amounted to "a hill of beans."
Oyler, 36, is charged with murder and arson in the Esperanza fire and with arson in 10 other blazes. Of the 11 fires in the complaint against him, 10 are described as set by an incendiary device. He has pleaded not guilty.
Oyler has denied setting any fires. He said in an interview that he didn't know what evidence there was against him and maintained he was home with his 7-month-old daughter, Diamond, at the time the Esperanza fire started.
McDonald called his client's alibi "rock-solid." He said the reference to matching DNA profiles did not prove his client started the June fires.
A DNA match for a person's profile only means that the person cannot be excluded as the source, he said.
"I'm not confident at all that they have overwhelming evidence," McDonald said. "It's not like anything I've ever seen before. I think it's being driven more by a lynch-mob mentality than it is cold, hard evidence."
But in an affidavit filed in the late evening of Oct. 31 to keep Oyler from posting bond, California Department of Forestry investigator Matthew Wayne Gilbert gives details of three of the 11 fires with which Oyler is charged.
Ben Goad also contributed to this story.
