Suspect in Silver Strand Arsons Ordered to Stand Trial

A dock worker from Oxnard with a penchant for tabloid newspapers was ordered Wednesday to stand trial on arson charges after prosecutors accused her of being the Silver Strand arsonist.

Rhonda Erving, 42, was arrested in January after officials reopened their investigation of about 30 arson fires--many of them fueled with pages from tabloids--that plagued the Silver Strand neighborhood for seven months in 1992 and 1993.

On Wednesday, Municipal Judge Thomas J. Hutchins ruled that “there is a strong, rational suspicion that [Erving] is responsible” for the crimes. She is charged with four arson counts and two attempted arson charges and faces arraignment in Superior Court next month.

She had earlier pleaded not guilty to the charges in Municipal Court and remains free on $20,000 bond.

Several fire and police investigators testified at Erving’s preliminary hearing Wednesday that the 42-year-old dock worker had been questioned about several of the arson fires at the time, including three small blazes that started in her own backyard on Moorpark Avenue.

The rash of fires stopped weeks after Erving moved to West 5th Street in Oxnard, Ventura County Sheriff’s Det. John Mimms testified. But it wasn’t until December, when her new neighbors told police they witnessed her start a fire, that investigators could link Erving to any of the Silver Strand fires, prosecutor Richard Simon said.

“I think the eyewitnesses tied it all together,” Simon said.

Rafael and Concepcion Davalos testified that their five barking dogs awakened them at 4 a.m. one morning last August and they saw a woman setting a bag of grass trimmings on fire near a neighbor’s home. In December, the couple identified Erving in a photo lineup, investigators testified.

On Wednesday, Rafael Davalos testified that he stomped out the small fire while his wife chased the woman into a house where Erving lived.

After that fire, officials reopened their investigation of the Silver Strand arsons and arrested Erving last month. Investigators seized several tabloid newspapers from her home, including several 1992 and 1993 editions with torn covers and missing pages, according to an arrest warrant filed in court.

Two fire investigators testified Wednesday that several of the fires were started by lighting tabloid newspapers, including a tiny blaze in her own backyard in 1993. The rash of fires destroyed two cars but otherwise did little damage.

Still, the fires left the Silver Strand community uneasy and led residents to form neighborhood patrols. Several residents took turns staking out the neighborhood in a camper owned by Bob and Pat Fiers.

“We are relieved,” said Pat Fiers, who attended the two-hour hearing Wednesday. Fiers and other neighbors--along with investigators--said they began to suspect Erving when firefighters were called to her home to extinguish three small blazes in January 1993.

Erving denied calling firefighters, but did concede the voice on the tape recording sounded like hers, Mimmstestified Wednesday.

“Her first comment was ‘That’s my voice but I didn’t make the call,’ ” Mimms said. Mimms also said Erving’s 15-year-old son said the caller sounded like his mother.

Though investigators said they have enough to convict the short, stocky woman of the crimes, they say they are at a loss for a motive.

“I can’t really get into her head and tell you why she did it,” Simon said. “It’s not financial,” which is usually the motive for arson, Simon said.

Neighbors described Erving as loud and said she often got into shouting matches in the early morning hours with her son after returning from the night shift at the docks in San Pedro.

Many of the arson fires were reported in the early morning hours, the investigators testified Wednesday. And police stopped Erving the night of the most destructive fire, when two cars were destroyed and a boat was damaged.

Ventura County Sheriff’s Deputy Nancy Allaniz testified that she spotted Erving walking about 1 a.m. without shoes several blocks from the arson fires and stopped her.

Allaniz said Erving smelled of alcohol and slurred her speech as she talked. Allaniz said she patted down Erving and found a cigarette lighter but no cigarettes. She did not arrest Erving, and under cross-examination, said she did not smell any smoke or other odors that would indicate that Erving had been close to a fire.