VENTURA : Accused Arsonist to Defend Self at Trial
A judge ruled Tuesday that a Santa Barbara man may act as his own attorney when he is tried on charges that he set eight fires in Ventura last October, including one that damaged the former American Red Cross headquarters.
Ventura County Superior Court Judge Edwin M. Osborne ruled that Ronald Kenneth Sneed, 48, may defend himself in an arson trial scheduled to begin Thursday.
Osborne said Sneed, a former car and television repairman who has no formal legal training, showed that he understands what is required of a lawyer in a criminal trial.
Sneed cross-examined witnesses and raised objections to a prosecutor’s questions during his preliminary hearing last fall in Municipal Court.
Ventura police arrested Sneed Oct. 7 as he drove away from a burning lot in downtown Ventura. His face was blackened with ash, he smelled of smoke and he carried burned matches and two books of unburned matches, one of which was half-empty with a well-used strike plate, police have said.
The fires caused an estimated $240,000 damage, authorities said.
Sneed remains in Ventura County Jail in lieu of $20,000 bail.
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