Woman Found Guilty of Setting Silver Strand Fires

A Ventura County jury found an Oxnard woman guilty Thursday of setting or trying to set a series of fires that terrorized the Silver Strand beach community more than three years ago.

Rhonda Denise Erving, a 43-year-old dockworker, sat motionless as the verdicts were read to an empty courtroom. She sank her face in her hands and silently wept as each juror verified his or her vote.

Labeled the infamous Silver Strand Arsonist, Erving had pleaded not guilty to seven felony arson and related attempted arson charges stemming from a string of fires that broke out in Silver Strand between late 1992 and early 1993.

About 30 fires were reported overall, but Erving was only charged in connection with seven. She faces up to six years in state prison.

After the jury left the courtroom, Deputy Dist. Atty. Richard Simon requested that Erving immediately be taken into custody, arguing that she is a danger to the community.

Defense attorney Bill Maxwell protested, but Ventura County Municipal Judge Arturo Gutierrez agreed.

“I think it is well taken,” he said. “I am satisfied that she is a danger to the community based on the evidence I have heard.”

Erving was then led away by authorities to be booked into County Jail.

Outside the courtroom, Maxwell expressed dismay at the seven guilty verdicts, which came after 2 1/2 days of deliberations. In his opening statements, he had argued that the prosecution’s case was based on circumstantial evidence that lacked the factual proof needed for a conviction.

“The system does not always work correctly,” he said in the hallway. “That is all I am going to say at this point.”

Standing in the foyer of the district attorney’s office, Simon smiled and declared the guilty verdicts a victory for the criminal justice system.

“I feel really good,” he said. “I think the truth was reached and that is what is important. I think Silver Strand can rest easy.”

Erving’s conviction brings an end to the mysterious case that baffled fire investigators for seven months in 1992 and 1993 as burning trash cans, cars, boats and the interior of one family’s home paralyzed the community with fear.

It was not until last year, when Oxnard police arrested Erving, that authorities concluded that they had found the fire starter.

During the 10-day trial, attorneys presented contrasting images of the single mother who has maintained her innocence throughout the court proceedings.

Simon told jurors that Erving left a charred trail of mysterious arsons in every neighborhood in which she had lived. He called witnesses from Artesia, Silver Strand and Oxnard--all areas that recorded arson fires while she was living there.

“She moved there and the fires began to occur,” Simon said. “There’s all these parallels.”

Maxwell, on the other hand, pointed to a lack of hard evidence in the case and told jurors that his client was wrongly accused.

He called Erving to the witness stand, where she denied setting any of the fires. And from the start of the trial, he challenged prosecution witnesses who claimed they saw Erving leaving the scene of one fire.

Erving now faces up to six years in prison, but Simon said he plans to research sentencing guidelines to determine whether it’s possible to push for a longer prison term. Erving is scheduled to be sentenced Nov. 14.

If a longer prison term is not possible, he said, Erving now has two strikes against her.

“If she sets another fire,” Simon said. “She is eligible for a three-strikes conviction” and a mandatory sentence of life without the possibility of parole.