In Old fire arson-murder trial, passage of time is a hindrance

More than eight years after the 2003 Old fire destroyed nearly 1,000 homes and led to the deaths of at least five people in San Bernardino County, the prosecution and defense in the arson-murder trial of Rickie Lee Fowler find themselves wrestling with time’s corrosive effects on memory and evidence.

Fowler, a career criminal, is charged with tossing a road flare into the parched, brittle brush at the base of the San Bernardino Mountains. He faces a possible death penalty if convicted of any of the five counts of murder he faces.

The prosecution’s first key witness Tuesday, a local tree trimmer who was parked at a highway turnout when the blaze started, offered a sputtering, sometimes conflicting account of what he witnessed.

Gabriel Padilla’s description of the arsonist shifted depending on who was questioning him on the stand, the prosecutor or the defense attorney. His account of the fire being set was so muddled that Superior Court Judge Michael A. Smith felt compelled to pepper the witness with his own questions.

“The delay has really been a problem,” lead defense attorney Don Jordan said outside the courtroom. “Witnesses have disappeared — one died — that we could really use.”

Deputy Dist. Atty. Robert Bulloch said that despite eight year gap between the fire and trial, he has ample physical evidence and witness testimony to convict Fowler. “The evidence is what it is,” he said. “There’s really no dispute about the cause of the fire, or if it was arson,” Bulloch said. “The issue is, who did it.”

In his opening statement Monday, Bulloch said Fowler intentionally set the fire in a fit of rage against a man who’d kicked Fowler out of his house.

“The fire was deliberately set,” Bulloch told the jury. “It was set maliciously by this defendant, Rickie Fowler. He did it because he was angry. He did it because he was selfish. He did it because he wanted revenge.”

Fowler sat and displayed little emotion throughout Tuesday’s testimony, a marked departure from the day before, when he delayed the trial for more than 15 minutes by refusing to enter the courtroom.

The 91,000-acre wildfire broke out Oct. 25, 2003, at Old Waterman Canyon Road and California 18 in the San Bernardino Mountains. It quickly raced through the forest and brush, forcing the evacuation of more than 30 communities and 80,000 people. Six men died of heart attacks, and investigators said five of those deaths were directly related to the stress of the fire.

Months after the fire, on Christmas Day, a huge mudslide caused by intense rain in areas denuded by the fire swept through a church camp in Waterman Canyon, killing 14 people. Fowler has not been charged in connection with those deaths.

Investigators said Fowler was questioned shortly after the fire, but there was not enough evidence to arrest him. Another suspect, Martin Valdez, 24, was fatally shot in Muscoy in 2006. At the time of the fire, witnesses reported seeing the suspects in a white van throwing a flaming object into the canyon.

Defense attorney Jordan said much of the prosecution’s case hinges on incriminating comments Fowler allegedly made to investigators in 2008. Fowler said he “was trying to burn down John’s house” and that he went to the back and took out a flare, according to Jordan. However, Fowler said Valdez grabbed the flare from his hand and tossed it into the brush, Jordan said.

“Fowler was playing with them,” Jordan said, referring to investigators. “He wanted to be convicted. It was a big thing for him on the street. He’s a street person. But he always denied being the one who set it.”

All of the victims died of health-related ailments during the blaze, including heart attacks.

Fire victim Charles H. Cunningham, 93, died of a heart attack as he watched flames engulf his one-story house in San Bernardino. James McDermith, 70, of Highland, died trying to retrieve his trailer during the fire.

Other victims named in the indictment against Fowler were Chad Leo Williams, 70; Robert Norman Taylor, 54; and Ralph Eugene McWilliams, 67.

phil.willon@latimes.com