3 Men Get Prison for Looting During Fires

Looters in San Diego and San Bernardino have been sentenced to prison for taking advantage of the catastrophic fires that struck the region in late October.

In San Bernardino, two men who looted a home of sex toys, alcohol and women’s undergarments during the Old Fire received sentences of one and three years in prison, in a plea bargain announced Wednes- day.

And Thursday, a looter who stole a videocassette recorder from the clubhouse of a senior citizens’ mobile home park in Lakeside during the Cedar Fire was sentenced to 16 months.

“This is the type of behavior that must be punished,” San Diego County Dist. Atty. Bonnie Dumanis said. “This suspect went to a disaster area to victimize people who had just been through a devastating experience.”

Timothy A. Smith, 38, of El Cajon admitted stealing the VCR from the Lake Jennings Estate as the Cedar Fire was rampaging through much of eastern San Diego County. Smith was seen in the gutted home in Alpine sifting through ashes.

Smith was fined $400 and ordered to pay $300 to compensate for damage to the clubhouse when he broke into a cabinet. He was the only person accused of felony looting during the Cedar and Paradise fires that burned more than 300,000 acres and destroyed more than 2,200 homes in San Diego County.

In San Bernardino, Robert Wayne Legaretta and Donald Ray Payseur struck plea bargains with the San Bernardino County district attorney.

Legaretta received the longer sentence because of a prior criminal record. San Bernardino County Deputy Dist. Atty. Karen Martinez said the case was given extra attention.

“We definitely did everything we could to assure the appropriate disposition for these crimes,” Martinez said. “This was above and beyond a regular possession of stolen property charge.”

Authorities said Legaretta, Payseur and a minor were charged with stealing items while neighboring homes in the Del Rosa neighborhood of San Bernardino burned Oct. 25.

Two other alleged Old Fire looters, Patthaya S. Wattanachinda and Michael Howard, are due in San Bernardino County Superior Court today. Martinez, assigned to Howard’s case, said a plea bargain may be completed soon.

Wattanachinda and Howard are charged with stealing guns and jewelry from the badly burned Del Rosa neighborhood three days after the fire began.

Smith, the San Diego looter, was on three years’ probation for a drug conviction when arrested.

Even as the looting cases are finished in court, the deadly tally from the fires continues.

This week the San Diego County medical examiner declared that an unidentified man whose burned body was found in a ravine is the 15th person killed by the fire.

The body is thought to be that of a transient who lived in the brushy ravines.