Image via WikipediaVAN NUYS -- Two men who earlier pleaded to recklessly causing the 2007 Corral Fire in Malibu that destroyed 53 homes, injured five firefighters and burned nearly 5,000 acres were sentenced today.Brian Alan Anderson, 25, and William Thomas Coppock, 26, were sentenced to a year in county jail, ordered to complete 500 hours of community service, placed on five years formal probation and ordered to write letters of apology to the victims who lost their homes and the firefighters who were injured, said Deputy District Attorney Frances Young. The judge also sentenced them to four years in state prison, but suspended the sentence.
In addition, Van Nuys Superior Court Judge Susan Speer ordered them to pay $7.7 million in restitution for the firefighting costs alone. They return to court on Oct. 20 for a full restitution hearing.
Anderson and Coppock pleaded no contest in June to one count each of recklessly causing a fire with great bodily injury and recklessly causing a fire to an inhabited structure. They pled open to the court, meaning it was not part of a negotiated settlement with the D.A.’s office.
The two men were among two groups of young people who went to a cave at the top of a hillside in Malibu on Nov. 24, 2007, and started a fire. Embers from the fire touched off flames in the tinder dry hillside that was posted as a high risk fire danger area. Whipped by fierce Santa Ana winds, the fire swept into homes in the area. Neither the defendants nor their companions notified authorities of the fire, investigators said.
Two other defendants, Dean Allen Lavorante and Eric Matthew Ullman, return to court Oct. 20 to face charges stemming from the fire. A fifth man, Brian David Franks entered a no contest plea in 2008 and was sentenced to five years probation and 300 hours of community service.
No comments:
Post a Comment